Custom Map #1797: PAC - Corrosive Challenge. By: Shatterstep

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This topic is for discussion of map #1797: PAC - Corrosive Challenge


Author: Shatterstep
Size: 80x128

[Shatterstep]

General tips

• Mortar Lure - You start with one, so you can destroy it so you get the ERN back (you should end up with 4). Just remember to put it down in the same spot when you get to that place later. Also wait until AFTER you have started the map to destroy it. The ERN won't be refunded for some reason if you do it in the first few seconds of starting the map.
• Mesh - Make sure to place mesh so creeper flows around areas.
• Crimsonator - Any time you have a lot of mortars and cannons, crimsonator helps your creeper survive long enough to kill.
• AC - Vs. AC, crimsonating creeper is worthless.

I'll update this top comment as questions come in. Sorry for being so repetitive, but people often don't read text, no matter how many times it appears ;)

I feel a bit bad about putting so many obvious spoilers directly on the map (like the lure), but I know there are going to be people who would get stuck otherwise. Ok, the start is rougher than I thought. Yikes. Added additional screenshots showing using the crimsonator at the start. Screenshots only show me with 3 units, but you should have 4 by deleting the lure.

[Ranger Von Danger]

First of all thanks for sharing! We need more good puzzle maps like this. It was challenging enough but I didn't feel like I was forced down a particular path or to use a specific strategy to advance. Only thing I wasn't super happy about was the lack of ability to remove mesh (so I could spill creeper into the void and place more mesh lol. But I get why you removed it. Good work and I look forward to another upload :)

[Shatterstep]

I still do a lot of hand-holding on this map.... pre-placing mesh, crimsonating key areas, placing the arrow to show where to put the launcher for the blob, marking in red with the contaminant where to place the lure, etc...

A really challenging version of this I would leave those things out, but then there would be a lot of people getting stuck. Alas.

I liked having a more compact map, especially since there wasn't an issue with lag.

[Greytusks]

Edit : Finally found where the lure was.

[wfo92gt]

First of all thanks for sharing! We need more good puzzle maps like this. It was challenging enough but I didn't feel like I was forced down a particular path or to use a specific strategy to advance. Only thing I wasn't super happy about was the lack of ability to remove mesh (so I could spill creeper into the void and place more mesh lol. But I get why you removed it. Good work and I look forward to another upload :)

You can still delete mesh, when you have it selected, click the box that reads "PLACE", and it will change to "DELETE"

[svartmes]

Great pac-map! I found this to be very well balanced for my playstyle, not too hard and not too easy which is otherwise always the case.

Only thing I didnt like was the preplaced lure which I could not find forcing me to play the first part of the map with one less ERN than necessary. I don't really get the point of that.

[Shatterstep]

Only thing I didnt like was the preplaced lure which I could not find forcing me to play the first part of the map with one less ERN than necessary. I don't really get the point of that.

There are going to be people that, aside from placing it ahead of time, simply will never figure out how to use the lure.

I placed a bonus ERN actually, but it was finnicky between all the saving / reloading / modifying and it was lost. It reset the ERN count. Anything that triggers a recompile, like adding cpacks can do that. I have to repair other settings too what that happens, like making sure the berthas are on auto, there is another invisible mesh controller, etc... It is amazing how much can go wrong, so I lucked out and only had 1 ERN disappear.

I modified my first comment showing the position of the lure. I'll add the screenshot here as well.

[Shatterstep]

Wow, some people added the "bad" tag to this map. Doesn't exactly motivate me to make more maps. This is a good map and was meant to be challenging. I must have played this map 60+ times trying to get things right.

WTF is wrong with some people.

[Durikkan]

Wow, some people added the "bad" tag to this map. Doesn't exactly motivate me to make more maps. This is a good map and was meant to be challenging. I must have played this map 60+ times trying to get things right.

WTF is wrong with some people.

That tag was already voted away before I even got in there to see it. 

Also, I wonder if my play style has a flaw, because it took me 10 minutes of attempts to get to the first arrow, and I was about to give up and just quit the map before I finally managed to kill those initial buildings. I see that no one else even mentioned that as being hard.  I wonder if that's the issue the people that stuck that tag on there ran into, or if it was something else.  That first bit was honestly the hardest part of the entire map. 

[Shatterstep]

Also, I wonder if my play style has a flaw, because it took me 10 minutes of attempts to get to the first arrow, and I was about to give up and just quit the map before I finally managed to kill those initial buildings. I see that no one else even mentioned that as being hard.  I wonder if that's the issue the people that stuck that tag on there ran into, or if it was something else.  That first bit was honestly the hardest part of the entire map.

The first few lines of the ADA message mentions launchers with blobs and needing them to pass the map. But I get you. I often skip most ADA messages. And admittedly that is a very specific thing to have to do in order to progress.

I wouldn't say your style has a flaw. Launchers being used for anything other than spores seems like it would be rare, so that is partly what I wanted to do for this map. To make use of as much of the PAC toolkit as possible. Never occurred to me how powerful lures could be in some specific circumstances. I really learned a lot when creating the map.

On a different note, I think the Field Generator is too powerful. If I create any maps in the future, I think I might drop the power by 20% to 25%. Dunno.

[Durikkan]

The first few lines of the ADA message mentions launchers with blobs and needing them to pass the map. But I get you. I often skip most ADA messages. And admittedly that is a very specific thing to have to do in order to progress.

I wouldn't say your style has a flaw. Launchers being used for anything other than spores seems like it would be rare, so that is partly what I wanted to do for this map. To make use of as much of the PAC toolkit as possible. Never occurred to me how powerful lures could be in some specific circumstances. I really learned a lot when creating the map.

On a different note, I think the Field Generator is too powerful. If I create any maps in the future, I think I might drop the power by 20% to 25%. Dunno.

I think I may not have been clear.  I knew that the launcher was the the thing to place on the arrow, I'm talking about trying to get to that.  On that straight section before you get there, there's multiple snipers that have clear line of sight with no intervening terrain, so I didn't even try to use blobs.  There's lots of missiles, so no spores.  There's like 7 nearby enemies attacking you, absorber terrain and the berthas shelling you.  You need to use an emitter feeding into a stash, with a field generator pushing the stash into a crimsonator to make it down that first straightaway.    Or at least that's how it seemed to me as the only possible way to clear that first section, and even that might take a few attempts before it successfully works. 

Yeah, the field gen is pretty powerful, but it's difficult to tweak exactly, because of the way it functions. 

Edit: Ah -- it occurs to me the correct solution to that bit was probably skimmers, I tend to forget those exist. 

[Shatterstep]

I think I may not have been clear.  I knew that the launcher was the thing to place on the arrow, I'm talking about trying to get to that.  On that straight section before you get there, there's multiple snipers that have clear line of sight with no intervening terrain, so I didn't even try to use blobs.  There's lots of missiles, so no spores.  There's like 7 nearby enemies attacking you, absorber terrain and the berthas shelling you.  You need to use an emitter feeding into a stash, with a field generator pushing the stash into a crimsonator to make it down that first straightaway.    Or at least that's how it seemed to me as the only possible way to clear that first section, and even that might take a few attempts before it successfully works. 

Yeah, the field gen is pretty powerful, but it's difficult to tweak exactly, because of the way it functions. 

Edit: Ah -- it occurs to me the correct solution to that bit was probably skimmers, I tend to forget those exist.

You are right, that is a brutal start if you don't use the crimsonator. Shit. I'll add the screenshots to my first comment to help others that get stuck. For the screenshots only used 3 ERNs so as to make it match the same as if others forgot to delete the mortar lure. I'm glad you mentioned it. I'm sure many others will probably struggle with the start.

I didn't use skimmers or stashes anywhere on the map.

Damn. If only that extra ERN hadn't disappeared. Also, I originally had the berthas and pylons leading to them being built so as to give some time, but since I had to let things progress while making the map, I forgot about deleting and recreating them so they would be built from scratch.

The absorber is to make it easier to see after you have progressed in the map. Honestly it wasn't needed in the final version because of where things ended up. Originally I had an emitter next to the start, and the creeper just got so high it obscured later areas.

Really wish there was a way we could update maps after they are published.

[Malcolm]

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this map.  A refreshing change from the recent trend for "massive war of attrition" style PAC maps.  Thanks!

[Shatterstep]

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this map.  A refreshing change from the recent trend for "massive war of attrition" style PAC maps.  Thanks!

Kind words. Thank you.