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Odyssey (challenging new level)


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My third released map. I hope this level will challenge even the most experienced Rock Raiders. The challenge comes not from time pressure but mostly from puzzles.

Edit January 2, 2015: Updated to fix some errors pointed out by aidenpons (an optional cavern was inaccessible and there was hard rock at the border of the level).

I have also made it possible to win by collecting 40 studs instead of 200 ore, which apparently is not automatic. And I have replaced some drillable rock with solid rock, to make it clearer which way you need to go.

 

Edit January 5, 2015: Major update that greatly improves the flow of the level. Definitely recommend you redownload if you downloaded it before.

 

Map Name: Odyssey

Back Story: Our mining operations have not been going smoothly. Underground floods, lava streams and teleporter malfunctions have caused our buildings to be scattered across the caverns. Several Rock Raiders are trapped on islands. To make things worse, there are no readily available energy crystals; while there are large deposits of crystals in caverns to the North and South, there does not seem to be direct access to them. Faced with this predicament, a team of brave Rock Raiders on a small island have decided to salvage what they can and attempt to rebuild the Rock Raider HQ. They will need all the help they can get from the buildings and Raiders scattered across the caverns.

Map Objectives: 

1) Find the 5 lost Raiders.

2) Collect 40 energy crystals and 200 ore.

3) Construct two Support Stations and two Granite Grinders.

OPTIONAL: Reach and rebuild the old HQ to the South (one of each building).

Difficulty: Extreme

Download Link: http://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/194

Installation: There is a .wadp file included for use with Cafetaria. The mod files are also included separately for those who want to install it manually.

 

Note:

- The level is hard, but beatable. It requires you to think carefully in many places.

- It is STRONGLY recommended that you play this with unupgraded raiders. That means you start a new game before selecting the level.

- The level was tested without mods that increase monster difficulty, but it should still be possible to play it with such mods.

- Definitely play without mods that increase building cost, vehicle cost or dynamite explosion radius.

- When you have played this map, please post your feedback and how long it took you to beat it.

- If the Raiders suffer from Idleness Syndrome, it often helps to beam them up and then beam down some new ones.

 

Some hints (read before playing):

1 Raiders in vehicles are not scared by monsters. Nor are electric fences.

2 To build a vehicle with your last crystals, it may be necessary to turn building power on and off.

3 Before you are able to use Tunnel Scouts, every crystal counts. Do not let a monster steal one!

4 You don't need to drill every single wall; focus on the objectives.

5 Teleport away useless stuff, but do not teleport away anything/anyone you will need later on.

6 It is not possible to collect resources from buildings that have been flooded and are floating on water, so don't teleport them up.

7 Sometimes landslides and monsters appear too frequently to be attacked head-on - this requires a clever approach.

8 Throughout most of the level, you will not find crystals inside walls and will need to acquire them in other ways.

 

 

More hints (if you are stuck):

1 A rapid rider can carry anything a Raider can carry.

2 Lasers can be used to shoot unreachable walls.

3 You will eventually need to build a Super Teleport in the starting location.

4 It may be helpful to kill power pads after construction to save space.

5 You can train a Rock Raider in one place, teleport him away, and then beam him down elsewhere.

6 A mining laser or mobile laser cutter cannot efficiently mine Hard Rock, but a Chrome Crusher can.

7 Rock Raiders can sometimes walk on a solid wall adjacent to water.

 

If you still cannot win, post here or contact me for more hints...

 

Screenshots:

 

talb2q.png

 

2hx2zs.png

 

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2) Collect 40 energy crystals and 200 ore.

 

Question: Does this include studs?

No?

 

In the .npl, there's OreCollected AND StudsCollected, or something of that ilk. One stud is not counted by the game as five ore: they are different resources, which is why everything in the .cfg has UpgradeCostOre and UpgradeCostStuds or something similar.

 

So yeah, if you've only used OreCollected and you're a major Ore Refinery user like I am, I'm just going to have to use Debug Keys and Ctrl+S. l405G.jpg

(I'll actually play it and provide feedback a little while later l405G.jpg)

 

 

Also, quick check: Will this be impossible to play if we've stuffed on various mods that change crystal requirements for stuff?

 

EDIT: Can't play it with manual installation because you've used the Custom Level slot, which I don't have, and you've also referenced CustomHi.bmp for its image in FrontEnd which does not exist without the Custom Level slot. I'm going to have to plough through the cfg to get it to work l405G.jpg

 

EDIT2: Typing up opinions now. Not entirely spoiler-free, but not major. I've got a TL;DR version down the bottom.

 


 

Fail.

I'm sorry to be harsh... but frankly it's true. It could be good, you have good ideas... but they didn't come out well.

 

It's not an entirely shoddy map. I'll get to the map later, but the fact is that the RR engine hates islands.

Quite simply, a raider on one island will get Idleness Syndrome almost immediately, and the game grinds to a halt if you had the patience to get that far.

 

Onto the map.

 

I quitted after... twenty minutes. Why? The game had ground to a halt because of islands, and Hard Rock didn't go well with the mods I'd installed. Nor did Dynamite, so my Rapid Rider was blown up instantly. I'm not blaming you for those, though. The game has a difficult beginning that does require you to think: unfortunately, there are simply not enough crystals to start finding the crystal caverns. So you have to take the route with the Rapid Rider.

Perhaps I'm an idiot, but I used the raider at the TOP to build up my base, but I'd thought that was intentional because you'd stuffed the ore in the walls.

 

It's horrible.

 

1) Put AT LEAST 2 squares of Solid Rock between where you want stuff to happen, and the border of the map.

2) Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, put anything that isn't Solid Rock on the borders of the map.

 

3) I haven't played this before. I'm crystal-hungry, so I want crystals to get that Tunnel Scout. What do I do? Strip-mine the place in the hope that you will have been nice and given me crystals....

You haven't.

In about ten caverns there are no crystals.

So I have to plough my way through 1000000000000000000000 ore.....

WITHOUT A SINGLE TRANSPORT TRUCK.

"Oh!" you say. "There's one down the bottom!" Crystal hungry, remember? I don't want to open another route which may have monsters in it, nor lava. (The RR engine hates lava, and so raiders are horrible at stopping it, but I'm not blaming that on you).

Also, crystals in the Cror.map DO NOT APPEAR ON THE GROUND IF THEY ARE ON THE GROUND. I'm wondering if you even bugtested that (yes, I got that far with NumDel).

 

Frankly, that's a waste of time with three crystals in it, which in-game would be enough to build a Support Station to shut Sparks up.

To fix this, you could muck around in the .ptl and stop rubble from giving ore... but frankly this entire map needs to be redesigned.

 

I went into Map Creator to plot my route for next time, until I realised it was a waste of time.

Putting buildings on water is a bad idea.

 

A really, really bad idea.

 

Fun Fact! You know how I would have stripmined the place to get those nonexistent crystals? I don't want ore after all of that!

Fun Fact! Crystal seams that are destroyed because of their surrounding walls being destroyed have an invisible barrier where that wall is!

Fun Fact! 25 crystals sounds like you didn't put any thought into better crystal placement, which from my opinions you very clearly haven't!

 

Also... you say "Find the cavern with the Seams to the South..."

YOU CANNOT GET INTO IT.

Even if you can, you quickly delete both Seams.

 

Fun Fact: I've just found the Small Laser Cutter which is BLOODY useless because it CHEWS UP CRYSTALS WITH NO WAY OF RECHARGING THEM, but I'll use it anyway on those nice close walls.

What? No crystals in THOSE, either?

 

Also, what is the cavern with the Super Teleport doing? You can't salvage it for crystals (it's on water, for some rubbish reason) and once again, no crystals are in that cavern.

 

 

 

Anyway, that's my rants.

 

TL;DR (if this is too long, a TL;DR of the TL;DR is at the VEEEEERY bottom)

-The RR engine hates islands and so the game grinds to a halt very quickly because you've drilled everything in sight-

- and everything in sight does not contain crystals, so you're saddled with too much ore

- which you can't even use to build Power Paths since Surges are a thing

- and you can't pick it up quickly with STT's because you don't have any.

 

Walls are WAAAAAAAAY to close to the border of the map. Some Hard Rock walls ARE on the border... even worse, monsters emerge from them and you can't reinforce them. That's not a threat: that's a stupid nuisance because nothing can be done about it.

- I don't have the crystals to build a Power Station and thus mass Electric Fences.

 

- Too few crystals too early on- correction, NO crystals AT ALL early on. Air is a thing, remember?

 

- Why the heck are buildings on water?

 

 

 

TL;DR TL;DR

Did you even test this apart from getting the screenshots?

 

 


 

 

Okay, I've been a trifle harsh. I played with some mods on that made the game unplayable, but that can be my fault. They were only "things are actually expensive" and "dynamite is actually dangerous."

 

The idea is good; unfortunately, islands on LRR do not work out well and there is too much ore and not enough crystals on the map.

 

I've sounded angry, I know: perhaps it has occurred to you that I am? I'm not angry at you: I'm angry at the stupidly large LandslideCoef you stuffed in as well as the number of crystals you didn't.

 

 

"Difficulty: Extreme"

uh uh

should be

"Difficulty: Extreme, but only because you strip-mine everything and still have no (and yes, I mean no, as in 0) crystals at the end of it."

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Thanks for playing, but the map was not designed with mods in mind that change the crystal cost of buildings. I playtested the entire thing without gameplay-affecting mods (only graphical enhancements). 

 

As for the ore, I didn't know about that. 200 ore isn't that much though, even without a refinery.

 

There no crystals in walls in the beginning ('no readily available crystals'), you need to get them in other ways. For example by beaming up the upgrade station and small digger you start with, as well as the small mobile laser cutter (which is admittedly useless).

There are some crystals on the ground (in the starting area) which I put as objects in the objectlist. If there are misplaced crystals in the cror file, you don't need them.

Here's a further hint: you need to build your first base in the starting area (the cavern where the upgrade station is).

 

I don't know what you mean by '25 crystals'.

 

Some buildings are on water because the cavern has been flooded. Read the backstory :P

 

The super teleport has a purpose, even if you cannot reach it or salvage it for crystals. The level can be won without even reaching it, though.

 

I have fixed the problem with the cavern to the south, which was indeed inaccessible before. Thanks for spotting that. 

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