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Strategic Sage posted:
You got some grief from eggs spawning from spore launchers you were nullifying; I recommend building a shield and plopping it down beside the spore launcher(s) between egg spawns to prevent this. It'll get stunned briefly like a skimmer landed nearby when spores pop out, but it'll also keep eggs from depositing creeper when sniped. There was a map with two sets of three spore launchers right beside each other I played and it made a lot of difference.
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Jan 14, 2021 03:05
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That would have helped some, although moving around shields on this map would have been a pain, but FYI they don't prevent eggs from depositing creeper, they just don't deposit as much. carbon dioxide posted:did you click the high score submit button after stopping the video or did you forget and just click exit? I saw you hovering your mouse cursor over the Exit button and now I'm a bit worried. I'm endlessly amused by the number of people who care if my name gets on the scoreboard. I could just reload from the autosave you get when leaving the level and submit it if I didn't, so unless I delete that for some reason I'll always be able to get it on there. I did submit it though. Perhaps ironically, the next map, by viewer request, is going to be one that I will actually care about the time more in order to try to keep it interesting.
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Jan 14, 2021 05:06
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Strategic Sage posted:That would have helped some, although moving around shields on this map would have been a pain, but FYI they don't prevent eggs from depositing creeper, they just don't deposit as much. The eggs deposit creeper in a radius in cells that don't have the shield on them. If you place the shield close enough, the amount that gets popped out is at worst extremely tiny. If it's not nothing I've not noticed. That said, I don't tend to use shields in general. I just place one near the spore tower I'm trying to nullify and then move the shield to the next tower when I'm near it. I've also used this to snipe out a bunch of eggs on a plateau by a spore tower too. I usually lose the shield in the latter case, but the amount of creeper that gets spawned is a fraction by the time the sniper turrets are done skeet shooting.
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Jan 14, 2021 05:42
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 Beat the Lanes (59:09) Another requested map from the Colonies, this one isn't hard to complete. Doing it quickly - relatively speaking - is another matter, so I leaned into that more than usual and tried to optimize more heavily. Those who were around for my no-pause days may be somewhat troubled.
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Jan 16, 2021 14:47
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Strategic Sage posted:I'm endlessly amused by the number of people who care if my name gets on the scoreboard. To be honest, I cared less about the leaderboard itself and more about the general idea of starting to do something and then forgetting about it and possibly losing your chance to do it, because that's the sort of thing I would do.
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Jan 17, 2021 04:25
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Cascades (14:22) A fun gimmicky map that can be short - or not - depending on how quickly you figure it out. Also good if you're one of those who likes anti-creeper.
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Jan 23, 2021 14:50
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What was multiplying that creeper? Did it just grow by itself?
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Jan 23, 2021 15:51
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Carbon dioxide posted:What was multiplying that creeper? Did it just grow by itself? The white unique units on the field are Impellers. When they get covered with creeper or anti-creeper, they absorb it, and dispense it elsewhere. The dispensed creeper/AC is greater than the absorbed amount, which causes it to multiply.
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Jan 23, 2021 16:31
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According to Regallion, any creeper/AC that goes through an impeller and into one of the columns is multiplied x4. I knew it had to be something like that, but I don't know the scripting so I didn't know specifics.
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Jan 23, 2021 21:06
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Is there a hardcoded limit on creeper or anticreeper on the map/tiles? Or can you overflow a 32-bit or 64-bit float with enough effort?
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Jan 24, 2021 01:39
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It overflows at the limit, which is 2147 display height. Creeper turns into anti-creeper and vice-versa at that depth; this can be seen for example in The Wave.
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Jan 24, 2021 03:20
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Which makes the void numbers interesting, the standard height at which creeper / AC starts flowing on void tiles is 2146 IIRC, so it's designed to be quite unlikely. Do note that it doesn't mean that creeper on void tile has to climb that far to get on land, I've seen more than a few cases of spores landing on void and the puddle somehow claw its way up and make a couple towers go poof near the edge. (And I hate that.) Also, thinking back on the game and its balance, I'm rather annoyed that we have bombers but can't get Berthas, both have infinite range, but I can't set bombers to go and dump their bombs automatically on the deepest spot on the map without having to set it manually.
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Jan 24, 2021 03:26
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Strategic Sage posted:It overflows at the limit, which is 2147 display height. Creeper turns into anti-creeper and vice-versa at that depth; this can be seen for example in The Wave. That suggests it uses a 32bit signed integer as 2,147,483,647 is the max that they can handle.
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Jan 24, 2021 04:29
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It was the same thing in I think both CW2 and 3. Creeper would flip over into AC and vice versa at MAXINT density. You'd never see it in normal maps but a whole bunch of puzzle-like custom maps did make use of it. I'm pretty sure Sage did some of them. It's like when you open a gate and a tiny droplet of Creeper flows into a pool and suddenly it all turns into AC and you can move on.
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Jan 24, 2021 09:13
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Parasite (29:04) Lots of stashes and breeder in one of the tougher Span Experiments maps.
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Jan 26, 2021 15:58
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You got no pylons linking inside with outside. And literally two connections between your citadel and your assault. That's bottlenecked you a bit
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Jan 26, 2021 16:39
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It's only a bottleneck if you have weapons running out of energy. That wasn't an issue on this map.
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Jan 26, 2021 16:52
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Schism (56:36) By viewer request, this is a blind approach and I talk some about what I look at when playing a map I haven't previously done. Probably won't be of great use to most in the thread here but here it is regardless. Mistakes will naturally be much more prevalent than usual. I should also mention that I will probably wrap up this thread in a couple weeks or so; any map requests that I haven't covered yet, feel free and send those at me. I'll still be playing CW4 beyond that on my channel, but I think there's plenty here for anyone interested in the game to review and decide if they like it, and if people want to see more - they know where to find me. A couple maps that I have looked at but not done; It is Dark (couldn't figure out how to get past the third section) and Battle in the Air (just too much going on, slows framerate to a crawl due to the airship spam etc).
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Jan 30, 2021 14:51
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WHY... why would you keep avoiding that second Totem on the first island like that, just barely keeping your pylons out of range so that at one point you needed to even move units to protect it against eggs??? They only have like the initial liftic cost so it's not like it matters. Argh, that really annoyed me.
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Jan 30, 2021 23:05
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There was a map I wanted you to groan and suffer on, but sadly i can't find it, it was unremarkable outside of making towers and pylons unbuildable and giving you a network of pylons and mining terrain on your first island and telling you to go wild. (It restricted neither platforms and porters, obviously, except that the porters have a mini tower to connect to the network and other things can connect to it. The result, for me, was pretty ugly but did the job.)
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Jan 30, 2021 23:18
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carbon dioxide posted:WHY... why would you keep avoiding that second Totem on the first island like that, just barely keeping your pylons out of range so that at one point you needed to even move units to protect it against eggs??? They only have like the initial liftic cost so it's not like it matters. I think you know the answer, but just in case; I didn't notice it being out of range.
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Jan 31, 2021 00:05
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Strategic Sage posted:
It feels like you should be able to speed this map up by crossing the void near your starting point - a regular pylon will just reach over there. I haven't been able to hold this position though, I made it to the nullifier, but then the big wave from the blue terrain hit me.
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Jan 31, 2021 09:07
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Troublesome Totems (25:35) A puzzle map by Coruncanius that I needed a hint to figure out the solution to. It's a small map, but not an obvious path to victory. This is one of the earliest uploads to the Colonies during the pre-launch days.
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Feb 2, 2021 15:05
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The Depths (1:00:36) Sorrontis returns with a couple of surprises. Eggs. Eggs, man.
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Feb 6, 2021 15:35
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You know, I've gotten into the hobby of, after clicking "Rift Jump" when completing all objectives, on the high score screen, click on continue playing and just watch the game for a minute. The Rift Jump button makes the Rift Lab disappear (but you can just bring it right back down if you like), but it's kinda funny to leave it out, watch the Nullifiers and then everything else run out of juice, and see how quickly the Creeper takes over the world again. Somehow it kinda feels like a satisfying bonus round after beating a hard level.
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Feb 6, 2021 20:43
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I want to pick the brain of the experienced CW people if I can here. If you could pick a single CSM map (CW3 only here) that you think is the best one, encapsulates what makes the CSM concept great/fun, which one would you select?
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Feb 8, 2021 00:37
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I think CSM-196 would be a pretty good example. It's not got the tower chip mechanics which are hit and miss in my opinion, it performs well, it's not got any nasty surprises halfway through to harsh the general chill of the genre, it's not a three hour slugfest, and it's got several fairly satisfying points of crushing the last several emitters all at once after liberating the rest of the section that you can stop on and come back if you just want to play and chill for fifteen-twenty minutes and have made tangible progress each time.
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Feb 8, 2021 01:45
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Wave Pool (14:00) A quick one here, and a fairly simple map with creeper and AC on each end, meeting in the middle. I use a hammer-and-anvil approach to take control of the creeper side of the breeder and get a fairly quick victory.
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Feb 9, 2021 15:53
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Holdem 2 (56:54) A somewhat infamous map, generally considered the hardest in the Span Experiments. Speed is not optional.
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Feb 13, 2021 18:56
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At 25 minutes video time, still under 4 minutes game time, a classic micro nightmare.
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Feb 13, 2021 19:57
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I think this is the part where I say something faux-witty like 'It's not how long it takes you to get there, but how you travel' or somesuch.
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Feb 14, 2021 02:14
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Strategic Sage posted:
This is the one map in Span Experiments where I pulled off a successful start after three tries, got partly into the nullify objective, reviewed the creeper++ timing, and then settled for a totem win. It's quite the map.
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Feb 14, 2021 05:17
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So, uh, is the leader board for the hold objective just an endless list of people in a shared first place because they all got it in 12 minutes?
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Feb 14, 2021 08:02
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Depends on the map. This one had 12+ minutes as the objective, so the timer still keeps ticking after. Others that just require you to hold the base for x minutes, like the one in the demo, have a leaderboard like that.
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Feb 14, 2021 09:13
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Hold The Line (33:04) A classic example of defend-the-fortress, this one is pretty well balanced IMO and unfortunately overlooked in the swarm of Colonies maps so far. It's quite losable if you aren't careful and don't make good use of what you have available. Carbon dioxide posted:So, uh, is the leader board for the hold objective just an endless list of people in a shared first place because they all got it in 12 minutes? It's also a good example of this. I talk a bit about the leaderboard display for units built and lost, but in terms of time it's the same for everybody. You either survive long enough to rift out or you don't, everyone's completion time is exactly the same. Edit: Link taken down temporarily while I fix my latest editing screwup, thanks to people on the discord for pointing it out. Annoyed. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Feb 16, 2021 |
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Feb 16, 2021 15:11
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TerraMoon (22:47) There's another map I want to get to before I archive this thread, the most 'conventionally difficult' as opposed to the 'I can't figure this out' type that I've yet encountered. It's not even a Sorrontis map. Also been having some unfun with insomnia lately which has taken a huge chunk out of my productive time. In the meantime though there's this; the first Colonies map, from the dev himself.
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Feb 23, 2021 20:32
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Learning Process: The Price (Blind) (39:31) Another requested Sorrontis map; a useful gimmick but I think it wears out it's welcome before the end.
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Mar 2, 2021 17:20
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I guess the eggs are on a separate timer from the spores, that's never shown on screen.
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Mar 2, 2021 21:54
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I've been trying out any of the "4RPL" tagged maps, to see what the community is doing with custom units and scripts. One of the recent maps brings back the "Play as Creeper" gameplay, which is interesting in design, but bogs down into a massive slog. The FPS map creator released a new map, and another creator combined the FPS mechanic with a script that auto-build structures, turning it into a sort of escort mission. Easy, but a neat concept. Finally, another creator has created a research building that forces the player to research structures first before they can be built, with their most recent map requiring the specific resource the structure uses to research it. The only downside to these maps is units like the Bertha and Airship are researchable, and clearing the maps in a decent time pretty much necessitates the use of these powerful units. Have there been any custom units or scripts that have interested you?
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Mar 2, 2021 23:31
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Not yet. I haven't done the PAC map yet but it seems to have been received well - I wasn't a particularly big fan of PAC in CW3, it was sort of meh. I think we're several months of experimenting away from good stuff starting to come out most likely, though some of all that is interesting.
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Mar 5, 2021 02:09
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