Custom Map #1609: PAC Maze Boost. By: NotAProGamer

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This topic is for discussion of map #1609: PAC Maze Boost


Author: NotAProGamer
Size: 320x200

[Niflthaena]

Please don't use so many wall units. Every unit carries some overhead, especially creeper-interacting units. and Crazonium usually isn't any more useful than void terrain - the one difference being that 20+Crazonium blocks line of sight, 0 doesn't.

But you already have 20-high terrain on either side of the crazonium.

So I wrote a script that replaces all the crazonium with void terrain:

Code Select Expand


once
GetUnitsByType("crazonium" 0) ->units
GetListCount(<-units) 0 do
GetUnitPosition(<-units[i]) toCell ->z ->x
SetTerrain(<-x <-z 0)
destroyUnit(<-units[i] false false false)
loop
endonce


Usage notes: Save this as a .4rpl file, import it into the 4rpl console, turn off explosions before running it, and it made the map run around 50% faster from the very beginning. It's still not enough to avoid lag - it's a big and complicated map - but the Crazonium has an outsize effect on performance.



EDIT: The amount of microrifts seems to also have an outsize effect. Not sure why - possibly overcomplicating distance calculations? - but when I removed most of them, the lag went way down again. It's pretty much realtime now.

That being said, this is just... not fun. It's an endless series of "One cannon, one mortar, one pylon", and there's so much crimson terrain that they never have a hope. This is literally just watching an endless flood of creeper kill an endless line of turrets. Even the directly interactive parts of the mod - dropping rocks from the sky, spawning eggs on high-value targets - have been disabled, so there is nothing to do.

[Durikkan]

Yeah, the lag is indeed due to the microrifts, there's such an overkill number of them, you could delete 80-90% of them and units would probably all still resupply in time

[Redneck]

enjoyed the "screen saver" map for a while... i don't mind long ones but would like to have something to do.   it's a game not a movie IMO.   closed it cauz of too much lag at some point. think i had 3-4 emiters freed but it became too painfull.   not sure how but if you can revive that without the lag and a bit more user interaction i'll play it for sure

[Malignantmind]

The only way to even make this map playable is to delete 90% of the microrifts and run the script made by Niflthaena. What little enjoyment there is to be had in creating an unstoppable wave of creeper fades pretty quickly because there's just nothing to do. It's a set it and forget it map. Zero challenge, and no interaction beyond the first couple minutes when you need to boost your first emitter. There's no need to boost any of the others (other than the final blob nest). So you just set it to 4x speed and tab out, occasionally tabbing back in to see if you've made it to the end of the boring slog yet.

[favour6]

an interesting idea, but cut down the lag inducing elements and add some Cursor to it so the player has something to do.

[hbarudi]

Just AFK completed this map.