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Crevasse

Hi Sam - I tried to get hold of you when I started working on the Battle Grounds maps some years ago, but getting hold of anyone via 15-year-old e-mail addresses has never been an easy job. I've sent you a friend request in the hopes of adding you as a contributor and discussing your maps with you for wiki purposes. :)

Laughing to myself, just came across this online. I made this map when I was 16 years old with a hex editor.
It wasn't even meant to be a real game map at the time, more of an example of what could be done!
It definitely worked when I released it but I have no idea what has happened since then.
Nice to see that it is still being enjoyed by some of you guys though!

Having done so, it is possible - just absurdly difficult. However, it appears said absurdity was intended by the mission's designer, and whilst I agree that that's poor design it can't be fixed without making fairly sweeping changes to the mission; changes of that scale are waiting until I begin the complete remastering of the project. That sort of work is intended for the future, but it needs to wait until I have time and more important projects are cleared away first.

An enemy light tank and fighter spawn practically right next to the tug, and begin attacking it literally within seconds of the mission starting. You have effectively no time to snipe a tank for yourself and rescue it (while being pursued by the tank's wingman), and if you do it unavoidably takes heavy damage--damage you have no means to repair. There are no navs to which you could send the tug to escape. I suppose it's fortunate that you don't need the tug at all, because you can just push empty units to the barracks (or handle everything on your own). But if the intended strategy involves the tug, then I think it's been poorly implemented. At the very least, the tug ought to be stationed near either the empty units or the factory, where it won't get rushed.

The Tug exists to allow you to capture units by bringing them to the "random barracks"; that's an important part of the strategies that are intended to be used on this map. The terrain is indeed pretty crap but there's not much that can be done to salvage it without a complete replacement, which goes against the intentions of the Battle Grounds project as they currently stand.

Suffice to say it is possible to use everything you are given; you just have to find a way to.

Yea this map is messed up. Pretty sure I completed it, but upon blowing up the last enemy tank, it crashed. But nevermind that, the way this mission plays is frustrating and bizarre. It's just a big, annoying slog chipping away at the enemy units, mostly by sniping. You don't have objectives on display to remind you what to do. Briefing said something about the factory and "experimental units" (the scout with the quad SP-stabbers, I assume). The factory is useless, because you have no scrap, and no scavengers, and no recycler (but you do have a silo, which is...nice?) . For some reason you start with a tug that simply gets destroyed in a matter of seconds--was that supposed to do something? There's a random barracks too. I guess the super scout is fun, but didn’t use it much because it'd just get destroyed. And to top it off the AI can’t even navigate the terrain. Some units got stuck outside the map. The terrain itself is dull to look at and annoying to move through.

There have been some crashes reported. A recent update broke many maps that use custom materials, which requires mapmakers to update the way they are handled. I'll be doing this for the Battle Grounds maps tomorrow.

scottrmck, I hve the same problems with other instant action maps if it makes you feel any beter.

Has the game updated since you made those saves? That's typically the cause of those crashes.

I get a lot of crashes loading all instant maps from saves