Gem Quest 1 [151]

[winged hornet]

#151 : Gem Quest 1

Unleash an array of new gem-based powers to destroy the creeper.

This map is easy and serves as an introduction to the custom gem functionality.

Custom Gem Upgrades mod available in this map's Discord thread.

Tags

EASY, IRPL

Feb 11, 2025, 11:43 PM

[pulsar cove]

As promised in the description, here is the custom gem mod:

To use it, follow these steps:

1. Download and unzip the file.
2. Place the folder named CustomGemMod into your map's root folder.
3. In the IXE map editor, navigate to the IRPL tab and click the Build Modules button.

[viral reef]

Satisfying

So this might just be a base game bug that no one has noticed yet, but if you save and load while phantoms are out, they all pick new random targets Edit: Reported in #1244772129686421544

[pulsar cove]

Yeah I'm fairly sure that's vanilla, the gem mod doesn't affect phantoms in any way except for possibly decreasing the quantity fired when Enemy Unit Suppression is used.

[viral reef]

The only bug I found is that the yellow glow goes away when you load a save, but the unit seemed to still be buffed.

I'm not sure I agree with your assessment that the map is 'easy', if every single one of my ships is firing including a boosted frigate, and the creeper level is still going up by 10k every few seconds and the creeper is all connected... Maybe the map is easy if you destroy a few enemies before the particle emitter maxes out.

Though the creeper reduction gem seems to be the mvp. I thought I was in an unwinnable state until putting a gem in there. Turret factory also seems to have a ton of value.

[pulsar cove]

I know about the glow bug, but I had it coded to re-create the sprites on awake through various methods and I could never get it to work for some reason. After spending a couple hours fruitlessly hunting that same bug I decided to just cut out the code that redraws it; if you load and need the glow back, you can toggle the gem off and back on.

It's not "practically wins itself" easy, but I still think it's pretty tame. The number of gems you get to experiment with means there are a lot of combos available.

For example, the turret factory turrets have shields from polarized force fields AND explode on death a la blaze of glory. That coupled with being able to be spawned anywhere means you can soak up a lot of particles and creeper remotely before breaching a chamber.

There's definitely going to be balance tweaks before the next level, I don't want some upgrades to become the meta.

If anything I thought the creeper evaporation and enemy unit suppression were pretty weak compared to the turret bomb combo.

AC breeding is hard to judge because it gets more powerful the more AC you have on the map. I definitely have to think hard about unit ammo regen, because it's really bad compared to everything else.

[viral reef]

To be honest at first read I somehow misinterpreted unit suppression to be mainly about active units like the bots and phantoms.

[viral reef]

You could always give ammo regen a small attack speed buff too, to make it kind of a combo ability, but yeah, that was one of the abilities I decided wouldn't really be helpful

[devout mason]

Fun map, it was nice to boost individual units again.
I can't comment on the passives unfortunately because I didn't actually notice that they existed until after I'd already blown up the inhibitor and won.
One possible bug, unless I'm missing something, putting a gem on a nullifier doesn't seem to do anything. A second, larger, weapon radius shows up but it doesn't seem to gain an extra weapon or more range to the nullifier.

[pulsar cove]

That is concerning, I'll check out the nullifier upgrade. It's programmed to set the range higher and shorten the charge time a little bit; I haven't tested it in a while so I don't know what could be going wrong.

You did get a popup asking if you wanted instructions, right? That's how I decided to introduce people to the mod, and it popped up for me but hopefully it's not buggy and not working sometimes.

[devout mason]

Yup, I got the popup but I kind of skimmed through it and missed the fleet upgrades section, possibly because my half asleep brain didn't see a pretty picture of it to focus on.
For the nullifier, the larger range shows up but it won't actually target anything in it, only in the original weapon range.
Not sure on the charge time but I don't think it fired any faster.

[pulsar cove]

Hmm, testing in the editor the nullifier works at the extended range for me. I'll have to keep an eye out for ways to recreate the bug.

You're a pro so you would notice if there was an obstruction or shield blocking the beam, so it's almost certainly not user error. That's a stumper.

[viral reef]

I also noticed that the nullifier showed two circles but only attacked the closer circle

[pulsar cove]

Well this has got me totally stumped. It works if I build and assign the gem, it works if I build, assign the gem, save and load, it works if I build, save, load and assign the gem... Do you guys happen to have any save files I could look at?

[devout mason]

Just tested it on a brand new game, no saves or loads or anything and it's not working. Even tried switching editor mode on just to see if that made a difference but nope

[pulsar cove]

On a brand new save? Alright I'll go make a new one and see what's up. It works fine in the editor post-finalize, so I don't know what's going on.

Huh. It's not my code doing it. I'll be dipped.

The range is being set up to 45 from 35 in the script. I haven't the slightest idea why it isn't working.

I don't even know if this warrants a support ticket since it's a problem with modifying a built-in script.

[viral reef]

It seems the range property on nullifiers doesn't actually do anything

[pulsar cove]

Except it does in edit mode.

The editor, I should say.

Even post-finalize it increases the range in the editor.

Okay now it's not working for me in the editor either, but it was 5 minutes ago.

[viral reef]

Strange, for me making a new map and trying to set the range to 75 has no effect on it

[pulsar cove]

I tested this when I originally coded it and it worked, and it worked when I tested it in the editor just a bit ago, but now it's not behaving.

I wonder if it only calculates its range on the first frame of its life? Imma test that.

Bingo.

If you place the nullifier while the game's paused and add the gem before unpausing it works.

The script isn't programmed to respond to changes in range, it just grabs it in (apparently) the :Once function and then keeps it.

That also means that you could take the gem out afterward and it'd still be long-ranged if you started that way.

If only there was a way for me to call the once function on a built-in object's script.

'course if I knew what local variable name the range was being stored as, I could use SetScriptVar.

[viral reef]

Seems like it might be a call to SetLosRange

[pulsar cove]

Ooh, that's a good lead, I'm gonna check that out right now.

No dice, SetLOSRange doesn't increase the nullifier's firing range sadly.

If I'm desperate I could always fudge it by deleting the existing nullifier and instantly replacing it with a new one every time you cycle a gem.

[viral reef]

Did you set both?

[pulsar cove]

How'd you know that would work 😉

[pulsar cove]

Where... did you get that?

[viral reef]

Well it was given to a few people to be cleaned up and put on the wiki, but so far only parts of it have been. I think it got overlooked.

[pulsar cove]

Ah.

Yeah I wish it was just somewhere in the .cwi file, uncompressed and waiting to be inspected, but no such luck.

Alrighty, that bug is patched and ready for Gem Quest 2. Thanks for the help.

[zealous cairn]

gj very well made map

the concept of the gem upgrade is nice will be nice to see more maps like this

[true idol]

fantastic mod and a good map too

[pulsar cove]

😀

[zealous cairn]

@pulsar cove are you gonna make more map like this it was super fun

[pulsar cove]

I certainly hope so. I've been getting my ass handed to me by the flu for the better part of 2 weeks now, so I haven't gotten anything at all accomplished in that time, but I SEEM to be on the mend and I'd like to dive back into IXE modding whenever I feel up to it.

[median gorge]

Fun map, ||decided to start in top digimaker cave to disconnect it and from there go to kill 2nd digimaker. pushing up creeper evaporation to full first|| it was easy from there.

[zealous cairn]

@pulsar cove hi can i use the map the machanicks to create a reskined version more or less