Outpost Universe Forums

Projects & Development => Outpost 2 Add On Missions => Topic started by: Mcshay on July 21, 2006, 10:03:42 PM

Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Mcshay on July 21, 2006, 10:03:42 PM
4p, Survivor, "Caught in the Crossfire"
This (somewhat old) survivor map is finaly done! You play as one of 4 colonies who are allied against a hostile Eden colony as the is closing in to finish you all off (on top of that there is the rumor going around the colony of a gigantic wave of disasters in the far future).

Start by building the needed buildings to evacuate your colony, and begin researching quickly; the AI won't wait too long to try to wipe you all out. Remember to bring a scout or too with you. All the mines in the game are hidden away, and the only way you can locate them is to scout them out. While caught up in a war with the AI, don't forget to build blight walls to make your base last just a few more days (only avaliable to Eden).

Files:

Rar'd:
Crossfire.rar (http://arklon.outpost2.net/mcshay/Maps/Crossfire/Crossfire.rar)

Separate:
mf4_ccf.dll (http://arklon.outpost2.net/mcshay/Maps/Crossfire/mf4_ccf.dll)
Crossfire.map (http://arklon.outpost2.net/mcshay/Maps/Crossfire/Crossfire.map)
survtech.txt (http://arklon.outpost2.net/mcshay/Maps/Crossfire/survtech.txt)

Goodies:

Screenshots can be found on the OPU gallery here (http://gallery.outpostuniverse.net/thumbnails.php?album=10).

Recording:
The recording has been removed because it didn't work, Sorry.



EDIT (leeor_net): updated broken links
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Arklon on July 21, 2006, 10:15:24 PM
Yeah, that was a REALLY good game to watch, too...
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: CK9 on July 22, 2006, 12:40:23 AM
That looks awsome man
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: BlackBox on August 14, 2006, 06:09:38 PM
Very good mission, just played it for the first time today.

It's a new twist on the 'kill everyone else' or just 'build a starship'. It is a cooperative game (too bad you don't share space parts).

Not to mention you have to run from the blight, but you have to deal with other disasters as well as the AI base (which uses more powerful attacks than the weak AI's in Dynamix missions).

Having to find beacons using scouts is also an interesting twist.

If there are any cons, they might be that the game is pretty long (if you're not a fan of long games). Also there's not a lot of opportunity for rushing (simply because it's not a combat oriented game.. combat is still necessary but it's not key).

All in all, it was an enjoyable game.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Sl0vi on August 14, 2006, 07:27:20 PM
This map is great. Especially since you have alot more to focus on then the other survivor maps. Having to scan for beacons, defending against attacks and getting that damn spaceship ready before the blight gets you, does offer a decent challenge.

I also like that it's a cooperative map. It's a relief from the usual pvp maps, sometimes it's more fun just having everybody working together rather then competing. The map could promote teamwork alot more, I could imagine some players taking roles as defenders against attacks, while one fully focuses on getting the spaceship ready for launch.

It could be a little more difficult, the ai attacks aren't really difficult to defend against once proper defences are up and they weren't very frequent.

The speed of the blight is pretty good, but you can still manage to get the spaceship done long before it reaches the final areas of the map. Maybe limit the players resources or something, to force them to relocate more frequently over shorter areas, this would give a feeling that your actually running from the blight, rather then just hurrying to get the spaceship ready before your out of time.

Anyway, all of that might make it too difficult :P This is the best survivor map I've played so far, GREAT WORK! :D
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Arklon on August 14, 2006, 07:29:35 PM
Quote
The speed of the blight is pretty good, but you can still manage to get the spaceship done long before it reaches the final areas of the map. Maybe limit the players resources or something, to force them to relocate more frequently over shorter areas, this would give a feeling that your actually running from the blight, rather then just hurrying to get the spaceship ready before your out of time.
Can't be done with any of OP2's maps right now. You need a HUGE map for that.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Betaray on August 14, 2006, 07:50:59 PM
if you think it is easy, play on med or low res

on low res so far we havnt been able to beat it, but medium is a good challange
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Sl0vi on August 14, 2006, 08:17:08 PM
Quote
if you think it is easy, play on med or low res

on low res so far we havnt been able to beat it, but medium is a good challange
yeah should try that. But does it affect the game in the long run?
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Mcshay on August 14, 2006, 08:18:32 PM
Hehe, it's interesting to see that the first map I coded turned out to be the most played. I plan on rewriting it later once I wrap up Swarm and CTF, etc. I was thinking about having different game modes based on the starting resources. Meaning, a long slow game for low, to a fast tough game (like it is now) for high. i may even have the game completely switched around as far as base positions and AI programming goes between the modes.

Edit: to answer Sl0vi's question (posted while I was typing) it makes all the difference. Lower ore levels combined with less people and starting structures/units puts you at a large disadvantage. Low res is impossible, med res is beatable, but very hard.

Basicaly you encounter a "population crisis" (as arklon puts it) as the AI begins to attack. You end up ignoring the blight almost completly, teamwork is essential.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Sl0vi on August 14, 2006, 08:52:30 PM
Quote
Hehe, it's interesting to see that the first map I coded turned out to be the most played. I plan on rewriting it later once I wrap up Swarm and CTF, etc. I was thinking about having different game modes based on the starting resources. Meaning, a long slow game for low, to a fast tough game (like it is now) for high. i may even have the game completely switched around as far as base positions and AI programming goes between the modes.

Edit: to answer Sl0vi's question (posted while I was typing) it makes all the difference. Lower ore levels combined with less people and starting structures/units puts you at a large disadvantage. Low res is impossible, med res is beatable, but very hard.

Basicaly you encounter a "population crisis" (as arklon puts it) as the AI begins to attack. You end up ignoring the blight almost completly, teamwork is essential.
I guess I need to play this map alot more with lower resources :D
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Leviathan on August 15, 2006, 04:09:20 AM
Thanks for this great work :D
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: BlackBox on August 15, 2006, 07:22:46 AM
Quote
.. I was thinking about having different game modes based on the starting resources. Meaning, a long slow game for low, to a fast tough game (like it is now) for high. i may even have the game completely switched around as far as base positions and AI programming goes between the modes.
I don't want to stray from the topic too far, but how would this work? since there's selectors for each player.

Unless you just took the first player's setting or something and looked at that.

As far as making the AI harder, maybe having them put up more vehicle factories would make a lot of difference. I didn't look too hard at the AI base while I was playing, but I'm pretty sure it only had one or two VF's even near the end of the game which meant a trickle of units from their base rather than a flood.

I might have the AI watch the players in the game and constantly be trying to match the players (for example, if a player is pumping out VFs like crazy, the AI might do the same. If they're pumping out ESG tigers then the AI might pump out Thor's tigers to try and match them in a battle). The AI just has to be able to hold out against a direct attack. (Also, if the AI can't get enough ore to pump out units, you do have the advantage of it being right next to the edge of the map -- you could bring units from 'off the map' to the AI player).

Perhaps base it off of the existence of a player's spaceports, or what research they have done (ex. once they have a certain research done it is assumed they will have enough firepower to hold off the next attack).

Another twist on the game play could be where you're required to enter the AI base to get something. For example, a wreckage piece. This wreckage piece is then loaded into the Spaceport (make it prerequisite to building the phoenix module or something).
The Gene Bank is another idea here.

As for base positions switching - I do like that idea. I think it makes the mission even more replayable, which is important - after all, if you take the time to code a mission, it's a letdown after people only play it for a few weeks or months then put it away.

You don't want to make it too easy, but you don't want to make it impossible either. Changing it based on the difficulty level sounds like a good idea since that can balance it between experienced players and newbies.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Mcshay on August 15, 2006, 10:22:08 AM
I was planning on basing the game mode on the highest res setting in the game, so if 3 people had low res and the host had medium, everyone would in a way get medium. Although, if we ever get the ability to add new fields to the game setup screen, I could have the res fields do what they are meant to do, and include a separate mode field.

- Back to the current version of CCF -

Right now, the AI doesn't do anything special, since it was my first (and only) AI. It has all of it's structures reinforced, a bunch of tubes and walls reinforced by 2 earthworkers, 2 repair vecs to fix stuff, and 1 miner to fix destroyed mines. Both of the AI's vec facs will be rebuilt, and put back into their build group if destroyed. There are 3 defence groups the AI uses. The first group is created at the start (a few tigers around the cc) to prevent rushing. The second just wanders the base, and the Third holds out among the Guardposts. Every 200 marks starting at mark 400, the AI sends some units from groups 2 and 3 to attack (the rest are destroyed as a result of a group glitch, that I didn't know about untill the game had been ballenced around it). The AI also cheats for ore to make tigers.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: lordly_dragon on October 20, 2006, 02:02:31 PM
I think I will come out of my op2 break just to play this map look awesome  :blink:  
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Brazilian Fan on October 20, 2006, 03:04:50 PM
DAMN GOOD MAP.

In what mark the blight takes over the entire map?

DAMN GOOD MAP.

Is there any way to make the map easier when few (two or three) players play?

DAMN GOOD MAP.

The AI is perfect! Well, better than the mission AI.... ^^'

Oh, I almost forgot:

DAMN GOOD MAP INDEED.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Sirbomber on October 21, 2006, 06:06:49 AM
I don't know, you think he likes it?  ;)  
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Mcshay on October 21, 2006, 09:07:11 AM
Hehe.

The blight should take over the whole map by mark 3000. It's slow. There is no way to make the mission easier, however with practice, it is easily beaten.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Brazilian Fan on October 21, 2006, 09:46:59 AM
If the map, with practice, is easily beaten, why not make the map a sort of 'surprise box': the ore locations and their values (bars), the AI stregth (numbers of vehicles and the ore steal), the blight speed and the disasters are all random?
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Mcshay on October 21, 2006, 09:15:36 PM
The ore values are random, and some times some beacons arn't created.
Title: Caught In The Crossfire
Post by: Exile on January 09, 2007, 11:58:03 AM
This looks really sweet why not have this for single player too i wouldn't mind a eden versus eden map or like Plymonth starship2 i like picking where my base will be rather then getting placed in a area that is probably not good local