Topic: Weekly Seed #22 [Alpha 5c] [Seed: Explosive Holiday] (Read 2625 times)

zxc · « **on:** January 01, 2016, 04:38:43 AM »

Let the fireworks begin!

This week's seed: Explosive Holiday

The Weekly Seed is open to anyone. High scores are not the only feature of the runs and the main reason for putting this together is to share our experiences, stories, and tactics over the course of your run.

Rules are as follows:

The Weekly Seed begins from the date this thread is posted and lasts about seven days.
Make sure you are running the correct version of Cogmind (see thread subject).
Enter the seed and abort your current game to initiate the seed (more details are below).
Verify you are not running the tutorial and that the screenshot below of the Scrapyard and Level -10 matches your seed
Play through the game once. This is a friendly competition and we are all honest people.
When finished post your scoresheet here (it should be the newest file in /scores) and any other screenshots/stories/strategies you wish to share with the community.
Due to the spoilerific nature of this thread do not read the comments if you are intending to participate and haven't played your run!
Any scoresheets submitted after seven days will not be included.
Good luck!

HOW TO ENTER A SEED

Press F1 to go to the MENU, select OPTIONS, select Seed, and enter this week's seed:

Select GAME, select ABORT:

If you have followed the steps [Manual seed applied: Explosive Holiday] should display in the log window.

Congratulations on entering the seed, now get in there!

Decker · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2016, 08:28:30 AM »

I went for a stealth build this time around. I wanted to test the experimental propulsion changes in this setup. The results are intriguing.

What does speed really do for a stealth bot?

For sure, if you're doing a speed run, then you want to be as fast as possible, and flight units are the way to go.

Beyond that, high speed has many benefits. You evade pursuers and patrols more easily. You are less likely to be noticed if you dash past an enemy. You reduce the effect of the food clock.

These benefits are not essential. More like nice-to-have. As long as you have speed 50 or below, you're fast enough to qualify for a stealth bot. Note that even if you're very fast, the benefits on the food clock are limited since other factors slow you down. For instance, waiting for patrols to stroll past, and waiting for processors to finish mapping the place so you can know if a sentry is sitting on an exit.

What I think is truly essential is to be able to avoid the overweight penalty. The changes make that much easier. Since propulsion is slower, you can equip more propulsion and still fit in the power/thermal envelope. So mass support increases through the roof.

Early on I had trouble lifting my weight with flight units so I switched to hover units. By the late Factory floors, I had so much extra mass support with 5-6 hover units that I attached a large storage unit and hoarded spare sensors and processors. I didn't end up using them, but why take chances?

By Access, I had 3 power sources, 8 utility slots, 2 weapon slots. I didn't need many fancy utilities. I had sensors, a signal interpreter, a terrain scanner, 2 terrain processors, a storage unit, 1 armor, 1 cooling system. I replaced the armor by a weight redistribution system when I was down a hover unit.

All in all, it was a walk in the park.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My conclusion is that the changes reward propulsion-heavy builds, which allow you to carry more spare parts, thus making stealth builds easier and safer. It doesn't feel unbalanced, though. Stealth is supposed to be the easy option, after all.

Kyzrati · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2016, 11:41:03 PM »

I think hover sort of sits in a gray area where you can go either fast and stealthy to avoid hostiles or take them on, since you can still support a good bit of stuff. The main drawback being those parts are not nearly as heavily armored and can get blown off.

That might be one of the easiest ways to win, easier than the other approach using a true speed-stealth build which relies on flight and can be more difficult to manage properly. This is reflected in your time and score, though--it took 6k turns, which is fairly slow for a speed run, and not enough to get a score bonus.

I agree that overall the changes do benefit propulsion-heavy builds. Seems everything's good and working as intended on that front so far

Enno · « **Reply #3 on:** January 06, 2016, 05:26:07 PM »

At -6 a C-30 ARC bursts open
deploying its payload...I-36 Angels.
Really strong guys hit me to the ground in seconds...

Spoiler: scoresheet (click to show/hide)

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Author Topic: Weekly Seed #22 [Alpha 5c] [Seed: Explosive Holiday] (Read 2625 times)

zxc

Weekly Seed #22 [Alpha 5c] [Seed: Explosive Holiday]

Decker

Re: Weekly Seed #22 [Alpha 5c] [Seed: Explosive Holiday]

Kyzrati

Re: Weekly Seed #22 [Alpha 5c] [Seed: Explosive Holiday]

Enno

Re: Weekly Seed #22 [Alpha 5c] [Seed: Explosive Holiday]