Custom Map #1416: PaCursor: VolcaNO. By: Heritor

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This topic is for discussion of map #1416: PaCursor: VolcaNO


Author: Heritor
Size: 320x200

[heritor]

Okay, so truth be told, this *was* a PAC-Cursor map, but I removed the cursor at the eleventh hour.
Meanwhile, I didn't update the name - but rest assured, the Creeper Cursor is not present.

[munkien]

I keep getting overwhelmed by the autopilot.
Any hints?

[WaddlesTNT]

There is some cheese where you can turn everthing off before you press play

[superbrias]

I've never figured out how to "push" in CW4 non-cursor PAC maps, CW3 PAC had the flow field thing that got powered up by holding totems in mesh and that helped immensely with "pushing" but in CW4 maps people just haven't done that yet, with cursor maps you can push by near physically moving the front with your mouse but without cursor you just have to hope it flows, which means hope a emitter can overpower defenses or try a very risky stash-lure, which probably still wont work because the cannons and sprayers will still stop your wave in it's tracks

[palpatine213]

The creeper cutoff limit seems too low to actually beat this map without cheese.
Even with cheesing the AI by turning off its ability to send ammo packets, I found that the resting level of creeper, where the emitters turn off is actually below the terrain height where the rift lab, and many of the corner bases are at.
The global creeper height in the valleys at cutoff is 13-14. The 4 corner bases are at 14, 15, 17, and 20(rift lab).
You cannot actually get the creeper level high enough to overcome the ac breeders.
The only method I've found so far was spamming spores/blobs, which wouldn't work against a non crippled AI, as the redon ore is also at a height above the cutoff.

I'm actually really curious as to what the intended method to beat this map is.

[knightace]

I beat this legit...although the completionist in me cried out that I couldn't defeat the anti-creep patch to the west of the volcano - I overtook the south-east one but that little one was just untouchable.

I started out completely ignoring emitters/stashes; just went straight to launchers. I blob'd the M'rifts overtop the volcano and a missile then switched to spores. I aimed the spores separately over the many creep-breeders on the map to get some free creep started.
While the AI busied itself with the creep spreading across the map I focused west; halting the AI's advance to connect to the Anticreep redon patch.
Once I stalled their advance(not stop), I switched to blobs and dropped the ERN's missile southwest. After that I switched back to spore and dropped the ERN's sprayer+refinery, earning even more launchers from this corner.
After that I switched back to stopping the AI's advance to the anticreep redon patch; which it almost reclaimed. If it had; it would have become ... difficult to do anything.
With the redon patch pushed back again; I focused ALL attention on busting down every M'rift to the west. No other unit mattered. This earned me full control of the west.

At that point I had enough launchers to destroy north-east easy. For the life of me; I could NOT overcome the AI's units to advance southeast though...even with 24 launchers. It had a ton of energy and just kept clearing all the landed creep. So I just finished by sending all spores directly onto the Rift Lab.

But it was so frustrating that for most of this late-game fight I couldn't use emitters or stashes. Emitters would not emit creep...and stashes didn't grow.

So really my main complaint here is the map is HEAVILY forcing players into a launcher-only approach...not really letting them use their full creep-arsenal.

Edit: Oh; and the launchers were able to overtake the southeast patch but it took a while. But not the west patch. Why did I even bother? ...maybe it's an addiction. =]

[OmegaJasam]

Just bearly did this with maxed out launchers slowly chipping at the base.
It's the emit limit that gets you. The moment you take any position, you quickly hit it and lose ground elsewhere, while the actual hill the base is on is nearly untakable unless you manage to lose the volcano.

[BilboGCL]

I didn't have enough patience (or enough skill) to beat this map legit, but you can...

Spoiler

manuall destroy all units on start

[close]

Greetings from The Shire!

[GadgetBoy]

That was arduous, boring, and basically impossible.

EXCEEDINGLY disappointed in this map, especially given I was expecting cursor support during the whole thing and becoming more and more frustrated because I couldn't figure out how it had been "tweaked".

This just wasn't at the quality of your previous maps, Heritor.

[Niflthaena]

I really want to like this map; the different areas have thought put into them, and the weaknesses in the corner bases are fun to exploit; it honestly doesn't need the cursor if it's balanced right.

As a balance test, I edited the map to remove the creeper cap, and added an under-construction bertha in each of the four corner bases to counteract the more cheesy high-creeper strategies such as stash-stacking. Seemed to work pretty well; multitasking was possible, and running creeper/mesh/crimson attacks is so much more fluid when the emitters aren't turning off constantly.

[Malignantmind]

This map feels next to impossible, or at least so tediously difficult that it's not worth the time. It definitely feels like a step backwards and absolutely needed to keep the cursor aspect. I think removing that killed what would have otherwise been a good map. Without the cursor and without cheesing it, you hit a stalemate and then get overwhelmed. Hell, even with cheesing it, unless you immediately bombard the rift lab with spores, the AI can still easily recover from you deleting EVERY OTHER STRUCTURE ON THE MAP. 

[heritor]

the Autopilot AI is brutal, but it can be distracted - the key to getting into the strongholds is the mesh already in-place leading into each stronghold.
My strategy to start out against the ERN portal on the northwest was to build up some creeper, plonk down a couple of emitters and a crimsonator at the base of the mesh, work on increasing the mesh in the base once the creeper's flowed in, and use the remaining erns to wear out the missile launcher until you can take it out, then put an emitter + crimsonator combo inside as soon as there's enough creeper.
Once you've got that, you can then use pretty much the same method against the Rocket and Factory areas, then surround the main base with spores/blobs and wear it down (since the AI will have most likely built a factory inside after you destroy it).

[Redneck]

Creep cutoff a bit too low sadly, otherwise even if hard it's a good map, maybe just adjust cutoff and reupload?

[Jerle]

Great map dude I was able to finish it legit with the help of 14+ blobs wrecking lab at once.  Maybe next time not so much of a emitter limit 3.5 is a bit little on this size of a map.