Maps by Phoenix

posted on June 8th, 2010, 7:12 pm

about the breen cruiser. it cant cloak unless:

1) the player who captures it can already build breen cruisers and research the cloak which means they could build a breen cruiser themself.

or

2) you are playing with free tech, which rarely happens.

but the breen cruiser is maybe a bit too powerful, maybe a disabled bomber. as bombers will miss early game units a lot.

posted on June 8th, 2010, 7:25 pm

I've adjusted the positioning and replaced them with weaker ships. One of them is in fact a Bomber . Lower defense and not so good against early game ships. The offending Breen Bruiser (replaced with a standard Pure Tech Bomber) is now a little further away from the Butter start location but is still closer to that one than others, to give them a helping hand while securing their moons.

I've moved the southern T Moon slightly closer into the Asteroid field as well, since I felt that it was too quick for Hal to get to and secure that location and it took Butter a long, long time to find it.

Just finalising some bits, then I'll upload it . Any other suggestions?

posted on June 8th, 2010, 7:28 pm

nope, i'll have to play it before i can make any more judgements.

your astrometrics site is still down.

posted on June 8th, 2010, 7:35 pm

I just loaded up Astrometrics fine over here .

Gonna have dinner first then I'll pack and upload.

posted on June 8th, 2010, 8:02 pm

that's odd, i can't load it at all.

isn't there supposed to be a link in your signature to the site, that's missing too.

posted on June 8th, 2010, 8:53 pm

Hmm, odd. You've had issues with Yandon's vids whereas I found that they loaded adequately...

I've updated my Astro page with Tau Ceti 1.2

I'd really love to watch an online 2vs2 , hopefully where players are aware of moon placements this time, so we can see how strategies pan out.

Myles if you still can't see Astro, I'll send you a direct link to try out.

[Myles]

posted on June 9th, 2010, 11:07 am

Last edited by Myles on June 9th, 2010, 11:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

i can usually watch yandon's vids fine, i think that one video i was trying to watch shortly after upload and the HD version wasnt fully ready yet. when i reduced to 360 it worked fine.

and i sitll cant access astrometrics, just says loading forever.

EDIT: after a while i get http error 500

posted on June 9th, 2010, 3:35 pm

a touch more feedback.

YouTube
- (C)Beat2k10(K) vs Ankarua(R) 060810 1.wmv
YouTube
- (C)Beat2k10(K) vs Ankarua(R) 060810 2.wmv
YouTube
- (C)Beat2k10(K) vs Ankarua(R) 060810 3.wmv

posted on June 9th, 2010, 5:05 pm

Yandon, this feedback is gold dust .

Initial Thoughts

The Beta Aquilae game actually played out as I intended. It's a bit difficult to find the moons to start with, unless you've played it before or studied the minimap in detail. I can see how that may be initially frustrating but with experience, I'm sure players would be much faster at expanding.

Wormholes

It's good to know about your comments on Wormhole placements. I too agree that they should be the core of any strategic movement (since they're also easy to bottleneck) but should offer an alternative method of movement. In BA's case, the distance required to get to the border wormhole offsets the strategic value of using it but does offer the chance for players to attack from a unexpected area of the map or as an escape route. Good stuff.

Nebula Moons: 2nd Video, 5:15-5:45

Initially, I was wondering about whether to remove the nebula from this moon but I'm not so sure now. The comments at 5:15-5:45 were very useful. Maybe having an isolated small nebula is ok, if the moon itself is near to reinforcements, since it forces the opponent to get right into any defenses of the area, making cloak-raids a little more difficult. Case in point being with Ankarua's Griffins having to wait for the freighters to leave the nebula before targeting them effectively, or chase them in and possibly leave the Griffins out of position. Though I can see how larger nebulae may prove a bit iffy (may well have to revise Sigma Draconis II for that).


Final thoughts
So, now I'll be making a few changes to SD-II moon and nebula placements and clearing the area around the Beta Aquilae Moon but do you think the small nebula directly around Beta Aquilae's Dilithium Moon needs to removed, after the positive feedback from 5:15 to 5:45, or should it stay? OPINIONS!

Also, given the initial frustrations for new players to find their feet so to speak (no pun intended), what do you guys think the replay value is for Assym Maps of this type?

posted on June 9th, 2010, 5:11 pm

I've had trouble accessing the Astrometrics lab. Could you by chance email me any newer maps?

posted on June 9th, 2010, 5:12 pm

Hmmm, Myles has had issues connecting as well. Have you got Tau Ceti 1.2?

posted on June 9th, 2010, 5:37 pm

yay misery loves company, im glad its not only me lol

posted on June 9th, 2010, 5:40 pm

I'm not! Can't be having Astro fail for everyone but me. I already have the maps!

posted on June 9th, 2010, 5:43 pm

In response to your asking opinions.  I love these new assym maps.  They create realistic battles, and the scenery is verry cool.  The problems with finding moons are fine for me, but in a highly competitive situation, it could be frustrating. I recommend you place a rating next to your maps based on dificulty.  This map wouldn't cause issues if the teams were balanced based on experience with game, and experience with the map.  

if all players were at an equal disadvantage, then it should be fine.  Lets just say that you should test maps in IA before  playing in MP.  Otherwise you will be at a disadvantage to those who are better players, or who have already memorized moon placements.

BTW, just checked the site, and everything works for me.  its a wee bit slow loading, but nothing is broke.

posted on June 9th, 2010, 11:05 pm

Phoenix's Maps

Thanks for the comment Adm Zaxxon . Much appreciated. I was pondering the thought of adding difficulty levels earlier on but since you've mentioned it as well I'll go about assessing them .



Astro Maintenance

I've been doing some general housekeeping on the Astro Community Maps pages. The following actions have been taken.

1. Boggz Map Links and bmps have all been renewed (waiting on Boggz to update his page as he has his own layout).

2. Updated links on Sutee's page (one new map, one updated map - basic presentation layout)

3. Provided a basic presentation layout for Facist's page (two map uploaded)

4. Deleted Riker's page (No maps on Astro or on FO Forum and no foreseeable updates)

5. Hosted Canny's Map Back directly on Astro.



To summarise; there are now three new maps and one updated map from various map makers who are on Astro.

,
Phoenix