Matter of Time - Single-Player and Multi-Player Map (First Map)

[Argonil]

Matter of Time



Difficulty Rating: Medium-Hard

Matter of Time is a fun sandbox map that reacts to the actions of each player. You will learn how to train and manage your creatures competitively as you try to beat this map, since the map is about training a strong army faster than the opponent with the limited resources that are available to you. You start with 12 creatures and your creature cap is 70, but you only have 2 gem faces to pay for such a large army, so you'll quickly wish you had more gold. The only path to the enemy Keeper is through a symmetric hero dungeon with 4 gem faces in the middle, where each room may or may not contain upgrades to help you conquer your opponent on the other side. Each room contains tougher enemies than the last, and is sealed off by a block of gold which can be seen by both players on the map, allowing you to see how much time you have before the other player reaches the 4 gem faces in the middle and gains the upper hand.

Nearly all creatures and heroes can be attracted through the portal, although only 3 Thieves and 1 Dragon exist in the creature pool, so you'll have to rely mainly on Demon Spawns to get Dragons, unless one of you kills the other Dragons on the map. 1 of each creature can be attracted without having the room requirements for it, giving you some time to construct rooms like the Barracks without losing out on a potential Orc. In the beginning, you'll only be able to attract 4 extra creatures each, since the 255 creature cap on the map has then been reached, but slots will be freed up as creatures on the map are slain. Every time someone clears a room, both players grow stronger. This is used intentionally as a balancing mechanic, and you should always keep it in mind. If your creature dies or you throw a weak one in the portal, you might not be the one who gets a new creature to replace it, so every creature you save from dying in combat matters in the long run. Your skill matters from start to finish.

I would like to hear your feedback as this is my first map. I advise against peeking in the map editor or script until you've played it, some things are not meant to be seen before the first playthrough. The map also has a secret. You'll get widely different creatures each match, allowing for some replayability in single-player. I've never played multi-player, but I expect the multi-player version (map 246) to work as intended.

Requires KeeperFX Unofficial v0.4.8 or newer. Enjoy.

Matter of Time_v2.2_.7z

[dayokay]

I played the single player today. An extract from the log file:

Error: script_scan_line(line 3): Invalid command, 'SCRIPT' (lev ver 0)
Script(line 7): script_add_command: Level files version 1.
Error: script_scan_line(line 42): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 68): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 91): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 99): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 109): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Sync: Optional file "map00245.flg" doesn't exist or is too small.
Sync: Created menu ID 1 at slot 0, pos (0,0) size (219,625)
Sync: Created menu ID 2 at slot 1, pos (0,0) size (219,625)
Error: script_scan_line(line 3): Invalid command, 'SCRIPT' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 42): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 68): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 91): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 99): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
Error: script_scan_line(line 109): Invalid command, 'PLAYER' (lev ver 1)
load_script: Used script resources: 0/16 tunneller triggers, 0/48 party triggers, 1/64 script values, 4/48 IF conditions, 0/16 party definitions

[dayokay]

Oh, it's OK - just a few missing 'REM' statements is all - I don't think there's a problem.

I nearly ran out of money, but recovered pretty quickly. I only made gas traps and one door type until I claimed the hero workshop, when I finally made a magic door. As I can't build a workshop, it gets full before the second trap becomes available. I only played to about half way through the middle section, so maybe there's more workshops to be found. My opponent doesn't seem to be digging towards me? As he has gems I don't suppose he needs to.

dayo

[Argonil]

Oh, it's OK - just a few missing 'REM' statements is all - I don't think there's a problem.

I nearly ran out of money, but recovered pretty quickly. I only made gas traps and one door type until I claimed the hero workshop, when I finally made a magic door. As I can't build a workshop, it gets full before the second trap becomes available. I only played to about half way through the middle section, so maybe there's more workshops to be found. My opponent doesn't seem to be digging towards me? As he has gems I don't suppose he needs to.

dayo

Ah, I thought about whether REM statements were necessary, but I was looking at the scripts for the original levels to figure out how it all works, and they don't use REM statements in those places. But I should probably add them anyway to remove the errors from the log.

Iron doors require 26 tiles of workshop, and magic doors and word of power traps require 36 tiles. You only start with 25 tiles and you can't build more workshops. So the other doors and trap become available when you claim another workshop. The workshop is a great place to earn money by selling the constructs, so limiting your workshop capacity also limits how much gold you can generate. If your workshop is too full, you should sell all the constructs you have in stock.

The computer is constantly selling doors and traps because his income is too low. He can't build bridges until the 5th payday because otherwise he'd rush all the rooms to get the gold tiles and end up killing himself. Whether he rushes once bridges become available to him or not depends on how expensive the army he's acquired is to train. So his pacing will differ each time you play it. Sometimes he rushes, sometimes he only takes a couple of rooms, and sometimes he takes a room or two each payday. Admittedly, the latter is often preferred, but I don't think much can be done to control his behavior further. He will often claim the entire hero dungeon if you leave the game running after killing the initial creatures. Initially, you can only attract 4 extra creatures each as the creature cap on the map has been reached. This makes the beginning a little harder than it would've otherwise been and discourages you from throwing weak creatures back into the portal. If you don't kill creatures then you'll delay the growth of both your armies, which affects his training expenses and incentive to dig into more rooms. It's all a matter of time, heh.

[YourMaster]

All text is interpreted as code, unless you say it's a remark by putting REM in front. And even the original levels had remarks with REM in front.

[Argonil]

All text is interpreted as code, unless you say it's a remark by putting REM in front. And even the original levels had remarks with REM in front.

To be specific, I used the Multi Example map for reference, but I see the Single Example map does use REM in those same places. No idea why it isn't there in the multi example, you would think they copy-pasted those parts. Oh well, I've fixed it and reuploaded it now.

[Argonil]

I want to try raising the creature cap for each player to 80, to see if that makes it harder and forces the AI to dig into all the rooms in every match. To do that, I want to set a limit of 40 on how many imps each player can create because of the total creature limit of 255. But it won't work. At first I made the spell unavailable if you have 40 or more imps, and that did make it unavailable once I hit 40 imps, but it didn't reenable the spell if I went back down to 39, even though the Create Imp spellbook was in my library. So I put in another check that enables it again if you have between 13 and 39 imps, but now it doesn't get disabled once I hit 40 imps anymore. Why not? I tried using both the IF() and IF_CONTROLS() commands to no avail.

IF(​PLAYER0,​TOTAL_DIGGERS >= 40​)
MAGIC_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0, POWER_IMP, 0, 0)
ENDIF

IF(PLAYER0,​TOTAL_DIGGERS >= 13)
IF(​PLAYER0,​TOTAL_DIGGERS <= 39)
MAGIC_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0,POWER_IMP, 1, 1)
ENDIF
ENDIF

[YourMaster]

The thing is, each script command will fire only once. Unless you put a 'NEXT_COMMAND_REUSABLE' in front.

IF(​PLAYER0,​TOTAL_DIGGERS >= 40​)
    NEXT_COMMAND_REUSABLE
    MAGIC_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0, POWER_IMP, 0, 0)
ENDIF

[dayokay]

Don't you think there are already too many creatures? And too many types perhaps? I'm sure there are other ways to force the AI into attacking the hero dungeon?

I want to try raising the creature cap for each player to 80, to see if that makes it harder and forces the AI to dig into all the rooms in every match. To do that, I want to set a limit of 40 on how many imps each player can create because of the total creature limit of 255. But it won't work. At first I made the spell unavailable if you have 40 or more imps, and that did make it unavailable once I hit 40 imps, but it didn't reenable the spell if I went back down to 39, even though the Create Imp spellbook was in my library. So I put in another check that enables it again if you have between 13 and 39 imps, but now it doesn't get disabled once I hit 40 imps anymore. Why not? I tried using both the IF() and IF_CONTROLS() commands to no avail.

IF(​PLAYER0,​TOTAL_DIGGERS >= 40​)
MAGIC_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0, POWER_IMP, 0, 0)
ENDIF

IF(PLAYER0,​TOTAL_DIGGERS >= 13)
IF(​PLAYER0,​TOTAL_DIGGERS <= 39)
MAGIC_AVAILABLE(PLAYER0,POWER_IMP, 1, 1)
ENDIF
ENDIF

[Argonil]

Don't you think there are already too many creatures? And too many types perhaps? I'm sure there are other ways to force the AI into attacking the hero dungeon?

The map is about being better than the opponent at training an army. If you only had 30 creatures then there wouldn't be much point to it. With 80 creatures you probably won't even reach the cap before you engage each other in combat, which means your skill has mattered. If both had time to train all creatures to level 10 then it doesn't matter if one was faster than the other.

I don't want to program the AI to always attack the hero dungeon at certain times, because that would make it too predictable. It's much better if the computer just does it whenever it finds it necessary from its training expenses. With the creature cap at 80, it will surely find it necessary eventually. I actually just played a match with the creature cap at 80, and the AI went for the gems faster than me, before we even hit 60 creatures. I like not knowing when it's going to start or how fast it's gonna go. The increased cap also gives the AI more time to attract late-game creatures like dragons or the horned reapers that it can attract through the portal whenever one dies on the map.