What does "avoid creeper" do and other items? Also, a message to the devs.

[Elexander]

If this sounds partially like a rant, it is. There is nothing more frustrating than an poorly documented program. I've now got over 250 hours logged into this game over the last two months and yes, I am enjoying it but I find it very annoying that I am unable to avail myself of all aspects of the gameplay because of incomplete documentation. This is such a great game but it's a pity that this like so many other games, misses the last mile; "Thorough Documentation". Without complete documentation, I feel only 90% of the developers work is completed.

I've looked all over and spent countless hours and the wiki page is useless, all it says for cannon is essential that it's a cannon? Really? Thank you Captain obvious!!!

What does "avoid creeper" actually do? What happens when you disable it versus when it is enabled.


There was one response to this question which was not at all helpful. Or at least to me it was unclear.  :-\ But then again, I'm just a simple country boy from New York City  :o

"Avoid Creeper" is on by default, and causes the unit to move above Creeper in order to avoid damage. It's optional because sometimes it's better to just tank the damage, for one reason or another.

This is not the only thing that is nebulous. What is the distinction between attacking creep versus mesh?

Message to the developers. If you can't take the time to create proper documentation, then Please, please PLEASE!!! create handful of short YouTube videos explaining what each function does. For one thing, you'll find that your YouTube channel will increase traffic and hopefully send curiosity to your product page. But it will also improve user experience. That's just my two cents.

[miquelfire]

The avoid creeper is used when moving from one spot to another. If there's a "wall" (Sometimes it's a hill or mountain) of creeper in the way, if the avoid creeper is turned off, the unit will fly through the creeper. If it's on, it will fly over the creeper.

[MysteryMaster]

If this sounds partially like a rant, it is. There is nothing more frustrating than an poorly documented program. I've now got over 250 hours logged into this game over the last two months and yes, I am enjoying it but I find it very annoying that I am unable to avail myself of all aspects of the gameplay because of incomplete documentation. This is such a great game but it's a pity that this like so many other games, misses the last mile; "Thorough Documentation". Without complete documentation, I feel only 90% of the developers work is completed.

I've looked all over and spent countless hours and the wiki page is useless, all it says for cannon is essential that it's a cannon? Really? Thank you Captain obvious!!!

What does "avoid creeper" actually do? What happens when you disable it versus when it is enabled.


There was one response to this question which was not at all helpful. Or at least to me it was unclear.  :-\ But then again, I'm just a simple country boy from New York City  :o

"Avoid Creeper" is on by default, and causes the unit to move above Creeper in order to avoid damage. It's optional because sometimes it's better to just tank the damage, for one reason or another.

This is not the only thing that is nebulous. What is the distinction between attacking creep versus mesh?

Message to the developers. If you can't take the time to create proper documentation, then Please, please PLEASE!!! create handful of short YouTube videos explaining what each function does. For one thing, you'll find that your YouTube channel will increase traffic and hopefully send curiosity to your product page. But it will also improve user experience. That's just my two cents.

The wiki is very much a work-in-progress.
It's mostly handled by the community.
The discord server has a channel for discussions involving the wiki.
If you want to contribute or suggest a change like that, feel free to drop in and help!



Setting a unit to prioritize mesh will cause it to.. well.. prioritize attacking active mesh over attacking the creeper.

You might have noticed that Creeper mesh not ONLY conducts creeper, but it also counts as creeper for the purposes of damaging units.
Setting a unit to target mesh and not creeper can be VERY helpful sometimes!
Units attack the ground, not the creeper itself, so technically if they attack the creeper, they will also be attacking mesh, but this isn't ALWAYS the case.
What if the floor underneath your units is mesh, but the creeper is coming from a different direction?
Your units will be too busy attacking the creeper, letting the mesh slowly activate underneath them and destroy them.
By setting one or two units to attack mesh, you can force them to cover your other unit's backs while they hold off the creeper.
It doesn't come up often, but it comes up just enough to warrant it being a feature.

Mortars don't get this feature since they simply attack the deepest creeper in range. (and if there isn't any, they THEN target the closest active mesh.)
Cannons DO HAVE this feature since they attack the enemy closest to them.
Sprayers don't have this feature since they don't actually do damage to the creeper themselves, it's the anticreeper that does it. Sprayers are entirely incapable of attacking mesh.
Bombers don't have this feature since.. well... they just target wherever you tell them to.


TL:DR

1:The wiki is open for edits, my dude. Be the change you want to see.
2: While attacking creeper usually also means attacking the mesh underneath it, if those 2 things end up separating, it can result in disaster if your units aren't protected from the mesh around them. Your units are easily distracted away from mesh, so having 1 or 2 that focus mesh can prevent a lot of problems.

[Elexander]

Thank you two for two very distinct and very helpful answers.

The first answer by miquelfire was direct and to the point and should really be placed in the wiki. The second answer by MysteryMaster was very helpful in highlighting some interesting tactics and strategies I had never thought of or realized where possible, which is what I meant by I was not able to fully enjoy all aspects of gameplay. This answer now gives me some new approaches to some past maps I'll now play differently.

[Keybounce]

First, I want to thank this -- I thought avoid creeper had to do with attacking. In particular, I see this on sprayers, and think, "This will stop it from attacking the creeper". Always on, avoid creeper, and it *should* (right?) only put the ground AC out. Instead, it's still bothering to throw AC at a distance at creep, instead of giving me a beachhead to land other units on.

Now, let me point out why this matters:

Without complete documentation, I feel only 90% of the developers work is completed.

More to the point, without documentation, it is *harder to enjoy the game!*. When you don't know what you can actually do, you don't know what your units can do.

Always consider what a person with no knowledge will think. Imagine if this had just been named "Avoid creeper while moving".

highlighting some interesting tactics and strategies I had never thought of or realized where possible, which is what I meant by I was not able to fully enjoy all aspects of gameplay. This answer now gives me some new approaches to some past maps I'll now play differently.

This. Knowing what command to give units matters.

I know what I want my units to do.
I don't know what button does what.
I don't know how to get my units to do what I want.
That I have to do "silly play" tricks to experiment and find out? I would never have caught "avoid creeper while moving" because it would not have occurred to me to even test for that and look at the unit in side-cam while moving.