Invictus 1.02

[mrttt03]

Well, the overall map is good but there's no tutorial which is quite lacking for a map as complicated as this. Especially if you're playing solo things can become more of a hassle to begin. Right now I would give this map 7/10 in my opinion but it could go way higher if it was a bit more newbie friendly. Having no F9 guidelines is a missing feature hoping that it will get implemented in future updates.

 

[CreepyShake]

I have beaten Easy with one of my friends, yet the problem is the Trading Post is not working (not really necessary in late-game actually). When we use it on each other Trading Post, it does nothing.
There should be a tooltip for the Teleporter that said
"There must be a clear passage between teleporters".
Also maybe add a little light like the original MineralZ? When it's night it's really hard to see what's going on.
Also, I believe since it's still in early development if anyone wonders, there is no need to upgrade Resource Center to any tier higher than 2 (50 per resource) because it gives nothing.

Overall, the map is so good and has so much potential. Loved it!

 

[CreepyShake]

Some beginner tutorials if anyone needs them,
WARNING: WALL OF TEXT.

Map's Basics​

General information​

• You start the map with 5 resources of each type of mineral.
• Depending on the Difficulty, there will be different types of terrain that are easy or hard to defense (I have only beaten the Easy - temple map and Normal - Lava map).
• You gain perk points on nights 10, 20, 30,... The reward will be 1/2/3/... accordingly. You also gain perk points for playing the game consecutively.
• The map is a cycle of Day and Night. At Night, you have reduced vision, and the Thruls will spawn in waves. At Day, the Sun burns the Thruls (the power of the Light, BURNS!). Time flies very fast in this game, so be aware of the clock at the top-mid of the screen (not the one on the top-right, as it is your current time IRL).

The Thruls​

• Not much information about them at the moment.
• The Thruls will adapt; God knows why these creatures are so powerful if left untouched.
• If you kill one Thrul before the sun rises, they cannot adapt.
• The Thruls will adapt to your strategies if you try to come up with funny cheese as I did.

The Synthesizers​

• AIs sent by humans to colonize and extract resources on different planets.
• Unlike MineralZ, your synthesizer will not receive a Starter Boost that allows you to move faster or mine more minerals.
• Your synthesizer (worker) can build from anywhere as long as there is sight.
• Your synthesizer deals a flat 20 damage and has 100 HP; leveling them up doesn't do anything (no HP, damage bonus of any kind), so please don't use them to defend yourself throughout the whole game.
• They have the ability to build and create various structures to hold off the Thruls.

Resources ​

Types of minerals ​

• Each type of mineral is depicted as a node on the map.
• The main category of each resource is different:
• Duranium is defense-focused; it is the mineral you need to upgrade your barrier.
• Chlorophyte (hello there, Terrarians) is healing-focused, used for healing and regenerating.
• Harbernite is utility-focused, a support type of mineral for upgrading mining efficiency.
• Cieranite is offense-focused; it is the main mineral used in building and upgrading turrets and Mining Range.
• Quadium is power-focused; it is the main mineral for upgrading your power generators and Chain Mining.

Quality​

• All nodes have different qualities that can be upgraded.
• Nodes usually start at Quality 1.
• Your synthesizer will mine 0.1 more resources per 1 node quality.

Buildings​

to be added...

Starting​

Spoiler

• You start with 5 resources of each mineral.
• Try to scout around the maps for a place with lots of nodes (1 for each type of resource that is close together is enough).
• After finding a good spot, start building your Resource Center ASAP, then use your first 4 Harbernite to upgrade Critical Sucess, which gives you a 5% chance to mine 1 extra mineral (although it's not much, it really helps speed up things a bit if you are lucky, or have the Who Needs Luck perk which increases the chance by 25% more).
• While the Resource Center is being built, mine up 45 Duraniums for building and upgrading your Barrier.

WARNING: DO NOT BUILD YOUR BARRIER NEAR A MINERAL NODE, AS SOME THRULS CAN EXPLODE THE NODE AND INFILTRATE YOUR BASE. CHOOSE SOMEWHERE THAT IS ONLY 1 SPACE WIDE, SO ONLY 2 THRULS CAN ATTACK YOUR BARRIER.

• During this time, Night 1 should have already started. Move your Synthesizer to the Barrier to clear out some of the Thruls so they may not adapt. If you leave the Thruls unkilled, they will adapt with more HPs and Damage.
• Switch to mine 25 Quadiums for the first Chain Mining upgrade so you can mine 2 different types of minerals simultaneously. Use your first 8 Quadiums to upgrade its Mining Quantity to mine up faster. Apparently, if you found a good spot where each type of mineral is close together, you should only need to upgrade your Chain Mining to Tier 4 to mine 4 nearby nodes. Mining Range is suggested if one of the nodes is too far away.

Note: Using the R key, you can destroy the unwanted node to complete your 5 nodes supply.

• After that, Night 2 should have already started; again, use your Synthesizer to kill 1-2 Thruls so they may not enter, as your 2nd tier Barrier should be able to hold out.
• Now start saving up resources for Power Generators (Quadium) and Rematerializers (Chlorophyte). After completing your first Power Generator and Rematerializers, switch to mine up some Ciernanite to start defending properly, as the Thruls will now deal more damage and have more health.
• For Night 3, the Thruls will spawn with different kinds (Usually Arzrith or Explosive Larvas); this is where you need to build up your turrets. The most efficient early turret is the Serpent Turret (which uses Chlorophyte and Ciernaite); it has limited range but high AOE damage.
• After that, you should focus on leveling up the buildings to Tier 3 while trying to maximize your Quadium Quantity. At Tier 3, most buildings have an additional upgrade where Barriers can heal themselves, Rematerializers can increase the maximum health of other buildings or repair damaged nodes, and Power Generators can transform into Solar Energy or become a Battery. But they all come with expensive costs. So my only suggestion is to put 2 points on Barrier Self-healing, Serpent Turret to shoot out a cone, and Rematerializers to increase maximum health. After that, you should be good to go.
• If you made it this far, then things should turn out okay. Change your focus to Mining Speed and level up your Resource Center to Tier 2, where the Mid-game begins.

Mid-game​

Spoiler

- With Tier 2 Resource Center, more upgrades will appear. But I have some testing to do to write more, so stay tuned for more additions to this guide.

 

[deepstrasz]

Definitely a great precursor or sequel or spin-off, derivative or what you'd want to call it of your other maps.
It takes time to learn the ins and out but after that, a really nice experience enhanced by multiplayer, is guaranteed.

Approved.

---

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If you're not satisfied with the review and wish another opinion, contact the other reviewers or use the staff contact:
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[Trotim]

Tried solo half a dozen times and struggle to make it to Night ~8. Even discounting the silly starts that happened to lack one of the colors of minerals (instant game over as far as I can tell) it's difficult and I'm not quite sure what to even improve - enemy strength grows exponentially faster than I can. It's all good one night, then next night the barriers get killed easily, the turrets do nothing, and that's that.

I assume perks and the like unlock after beating a planet...?

 

[maddeem]

Tried solo half a dozen times and struggle to make it to Night ~8. Even discounting the silly starts that happened to lack one of the colors of minerals (instant game over as far as I can tell) it's difficult and I'm not quite sure what to even improve - enemy strength grows exponentially faster than I can. It's all good one night, then next night the barriers get killed easily, the turrets do nothing, and that's that.

I assume perks and the like unlock after beating a planet...?

You get perk points every 10 nights survived, or if you play the map for multiple days in a row. The Thrul adapt if you purely focus defense or offense. Your best bet is to evenly focus on offense and defense, unless you want a challenge. Good luck!

 

[Trotim]

You get perk points every 10 nights survived, or if you play the map for multiple days in a row. The Thrul adapt if you purely focus defense or offense. Your best bet is to evenly focus on offense and defense, unless you want a challenge. Good luck!

Fair enough, I'll give it another go

 

[Wrda]

Dear maddeem, you can use this method for setting unit's attack range, as it works with units who are ranged or melee:

function SetUnitAttackRange takes unit u, integer weapon_index, real desired_range returns nothing
    local real current_range = BlzGetUnitWeaponRealField(u, UNIT_WEAPON_RF_ATTACK_RANGE, weapon_index) // index is correct, returned range is correct.
    local real current_range_second = BlzGetUnitWeaponRealField(u, UNIT_WEAPON_RF_ATTACK_RANGE, weapon_index + 1) // yes, we should get the 2nd attack range and count it too
    call BlzSetUnitWeaponRealField(u, UNIT_WEAPON_RF_ATTACK_RANGE, weapon_index + 1, desired_range - current_range + current_range_second)
endfunction

Same gist in lua, of course.
I got this from a guy by the name of Admiral in discord. I don't know his name here.

Regarding the map, it's pretty dope. I've already played on some previous versions, beat easy, normal and hard (this one took a while).
Recently beat easy on this version, didn't really notice any difference, besides my save state being wiped out
Looking forward to playing more times.

 

[maddeem]

Dear maddeem, you can use this method for setting unit's attack range, as it works with units who are ranged or melee:

function SetUnitAttackRange takes unit u, integer weapon_index, real desired_range returns nothing
    local real current_range = BlzGetUnitWeaponRealField(u, UNIT_WEAPON_RF_ATTACK_RANGE, weapon_index) // index is correct, returned range is correct.
    local real current_range_second = BlzGetUnitWeaponRealField(u, UNIT_WEAPON_RF_ATTACK_RANGE, weapon_index + 1) // yes, we should get the 2nd attack range and count it too
    call BlzSetUnitWeaponRealField(u, UNIT_WEAPON_RF_ATTACK_RANGE, weapon_index + 1, desired_range - current_range + current_range_second)
endfunction

Same gist in lua, of course.
I got this from a guy by the name of Admiral in discord. I don't know his name here.

Regarding the map, it's pretty dope. I've already played on some previous versions, beat easy, normal and hard (this one took a while).
Recently beat easy on this version, didn't really notice any difference, besides my save state being wiped out
Looking forward to play more times.

Man how broken is that native???

 

[E.T.Frost]

Great map! This is quite addictive. Please update guide and info on F9

 

[OVOgenez]

Cool map bro, love this futuristic style. Where did you get these icons (for example, those that appear when you click "Synthesize")?

 

[selffire]

Hey, I love your map but the balance is really bad.

I played on easy with a friend.

At night 7 we already lost allthough we had the 700 blue crystal wall with 3 times hp regen upgrade (see screenshot below) because the creeps have each 200-300 damage ...


What im missing:

No Quests (could be used for information like why the aliens are evolving message??)
Trade System (we both built a trade post and used on another trade post but the trading still didn't work...



The gattling gun tower (starts slow but gets faster with each attack requires ALOT of energy to attack properly

Overall balance for example the hp regen upgrade for wall is alot cheaper and better then building repair towers compared to the cost

AND all towers even with upgrades deal way to less damage to even kill something


I would love to see this updated

3/5 (-1.5 just for bad balance and missing tade function and no ingame information like quest menu )


EDIT: I missed somehow the description that the waves are adapting depending on your playstyle
EDIT2: changes made, rating changed to 5 stars

 

[mrttt03]

Hey, I love your map but the balance is really bad.

I played on easy with a friend.

At night 7 we already lost allthough we had the 700 blue crystal wall with 3 times hp regen upgrade (see screenshot below) because the creeps have each 200-300 damage ...


What im missing:

No Quests (could be used for information like why the aliens are evolving message??)
Trade System (we both built a trade post and used on another trade post but the trading still didn't work...



The gattling gun tower (starts slow but gets faster with each attack requires ALOT of energy to attack properly

Overall balance for example the hp regen upgrade for wall is alot cheaper and better then building repair towers compared to the cost

AND all towers even with upgrades deal way to less damage to even kill something


I would love to see this updated

3/5 (-1.5 just for bad balance and missing tade function and no ingame information like quest menu )


EDIT: I missed somehow the description that the waves are adapting depending on your playstyle

View attachment 457560

Tbh the balance is fine it's just that this game has a different learning curve as you learn the game you can even do solo play on easy normal difficulties. But i do agree on the trading part aswell for now it has no use :/ I mean i've played this map quite a lot and been waiting for an update a long while guess the wait still continues.
Also you can find guides and tips in the Discord server of MineralZ they can help quite a lot another thing is don't rely on just your barrier if you do so the air units will spawn the enemies in this map adapt to your playing style so you have to be more dynamic with your defenses if you use static tactics that will be your own demise to say so. For multiplayer playing always split your jobs if one person specs into duranium others should chlorophyte or something else one other thing is rush for your laser drills first things first and your upgraded base they have an upgrade that gives them +1 mining power instead of 0.1 you get at the beginning so it means a lot especially for the solo plays later into the game you'll be spamming them all across the map as there is no building reach limit it's just that you have to build nearby to enclosed clusters so that they don't get destroyed. Monsters won't even bother with them if they'r not withing open reach they will always be coming for your workers life be carefull about that.
Have fun good luck i spoke way too much

 

[maddeem]

Fixed the trading post so that it actually works, enjoy!


So I have about 5 adaptations if I recall correctly. One is that you need to actively try to kill the thrul otherwise they will "adapt" by gaining permanent damage bonuses. You can ignore these bonuses early on but they have the potential to be exponential. I don't want to reveal much more because you probably don't want to know how the sausage is made.

Hey, I love your map but the balance is really bad.

I played on easy with a friend.

At night 7 we already lost allthough we had the 700 blue crystal wall with 3 times hp regen upgrade (see screenshot below) because the creeps have each 200-300 damage ...


What im missing:

No Quests (could be used for information like why the aliens are evolving message??)
Trade System (we both built a trade post and used on another trade post but the trading still didn't work...



The gattling gun tower (starts slow but gets faster with each attack requires ALOT of energy to attack properly

Overall balance for example the hp regen upgrade for wall is alot cheaper and better then building repair towers compared to the cost

AND all towers even with upgrades deal way to less damage to even kill something


I would love to see this updated

3/5 (-1.5 just for bad balance and missing tade function and no ingame information like quest menu )


EDIT: I missed somehow the description that the waves are adapting depending on your playstyle