)) Mercury

---

A comeback map for me. This is merge of my coolest maps. It has city scape terrain from GTA classic, Zombie systems from BrainBread and Unit groups from my CTF maps. Altogether it happens to be pretty fun map of mine. Now about the map itself. Citizens of space town Mercury have been becoming evil zombies. You as a mercenary decide that this is your lucky day and offer your services to Mercury citizens. Soon you find yourself in a zombie killing rage and you begin to like your newest job.

---

)) Specifications

---

)) Players
1-6 players
)) Tileset
Space
)) Map size
128x128 59.6Kb, thanks to tinymap.

---

)) Features

---

)) Terrain
Cool space town. Space seems to be better than badlands when it comes to town scape. Not much of an extended terrain, bet pretty good looking anyway.
)) Zombies
As should be, zombies spawn where they need to spawn. Map is divided into several zones with a zombie limit in each. When a zone has less zombies than it's limit, the system shoots zombies there and so on. The zombie limit is based on the player count in game. More players, MOAR zombies!
)) Unit groups
As it turns out even more successful, I tend to use unit groups in this map. It's always better to have a crew than running around with just 1 marine.
)) Inventory
Everyone's favorite transport inventory/power up system. Hey you can restore health and recall some additional units, cool!
)) Difficulty
Countdown timer runs out, difficulty increases. Faster stronger zombies spawn each round. 6 difficulty levels. Last one is a loose, so hurry up.

---

)) Details

---

Unit groups available:
)) Alien bot

• Probe (can build dragoons and archons)
  
• 2 hero dragoons
  

)) Fire Squad

• 6 Hero Firebats
  
• 2 Medics
  

)) Sniper pack

• Hero Goliaths
  
• 3 Ghosts
  
• Medic
  

)) Heavy Support

• 3 High Templars
  
• 2 Hero Tanks (siege available)
  

)) Engineer

• 2 Marines
  
• 2 Firebats
  
• SCV (can build 2 tanks no siege, 2 goliaths, bunker)
  

)) Assault team

• 5 Hero Marines
  
• Medic
  

Hero units are all together better than normal.

Power ups available:

• + 1 High Templat
  
• + 1 gas(for upgrades)
  
• Full Health
  
• Full Energy
  
• + 1 Battlecruiser (30 secs.)
  
• + 3 spider mines
  
• + 1 Marines; Ghost; Firebat; Medic
  

---

)) Screenshots

---

---

)) Team

---

)) Operating the Draft

• Gigins

)) Testers

• JaFF
  
• lil-Inferno!
  
• JB4
  
• O)UnholyUrine
  
• [Echo]:]
  
• azala
  
• Ace_Bell

)) Special thanks to

• Suicidal Insanity (for helping with draft)
  
• O)FaRTy1billion (for tinymap)
  
• Falkoner (for updating me about protectors)
  
• JaFF (for inspiring me to map again)

Super thanks to everyone who helped!

---

)) Changelog

---

)) Mercury v0.90-v0.93
Closed beta version
)) Mercury v0.94
Open beta release
)) Mercury v0.95
Fixed player 2-6 info unit bug
Fixed disabled infantry armor upgrades since Farty fixed tinymap2
Mercury v095.scx (59.92 kb) -- 45 hits

Like finally.. what happened to you lol.. didn't see u for a while.

Anyway, this game's pretty fun. Tactics are needed above the mindless zombie slaughtering...

Woo release!

I hope the public likes this map like your CTF maps. I still see some people hosting it now a days.

Quote from [Echo]:]

I still see some people hosting it now a days.

Mostly only me ;o

Hmmm interesting, ill have to check it out

Awards

I won in singleplayer in 59 minutes
cloaking my kerri and using the energy refill helped me a lot.

You don't get many minerals for killing the last 2 difficulty stages (it's more that you get nothing). In other stages every kill = 1 Mineral...

What? I'm clearly a better tester than Echo.

Ok, me and my friends have some testing results for ya.

Two replays. In the first one, it's demonstrated that you can move the info scourge. In the second one, it's demonstrated that turtling and farming does NOT work. We screwed ourselves so badly - well, just watch it. It's actually a little humorous.

EDIT: Apparently UMS replays don't work. See below.

UMS replays doesn't work. Just tell me what happened with the scourge. And yes, farming doesn't work.

Quote from Gigins

UMS replays doesn't work. Just tell me what happened with the scourge. And yes, farming doesn't work.

All players besides player 1 can move their scourges and it fails to have any effect at all.

I did find a good place to farm: the structure that can be climbed upon on the west side of the map with the incredibly active zombie spawn nearby. That is, it's an excellent place to farm UNTIL the second to last difficulty setting. The Slime Mutants are... well, I don't want to say OP... but you might want to consider nerfing them a touch. Imho.

I did manage to get almost 14,000 kills before we got pasted by the mutants...

The point is to finish the game before that level. I'll fix the info.

Yeah, we realized that after the slime mutants overran the landing zone. Next time maybe we'll try to be smarter about it.

Oh, I just remembered - the Creeps are rather nasty. As it is, they can shred a sniper in two hits and medics can't do anything about it. Could you demote their damage to 15 or 16 instead of 18? Imo, that'd be more balanced - with no medic on hand, the sniper will die in two shots, and with a medic there healing it'll take three shots.

If you have a good reason for making the creeps as powerful as they are, I'd love to hear it, though. I'm a logical person.

The damage 18 comes after many many tests. Because if you focus your upgrades on armor, as we mostly did, creep can't kill you at all when you reach level 12+. Try upgrading more armor, you'll see huge difference, since armor is much cheaper anyway.

Quote from Gigins

The damage 18 comes after many many tests. Because if you focus your upgrades on armor, as we mostly did, creep can't kill you at all when you reach level 12+. Try upgrading more armor, you'll see huge difference, since armor is much cheaper anyway.

Upgrading infantry armor is disabled.

EDIT: Finished single player in just under an hour. Earned 'Money Really Matters;' 'Low Casualties;' and 'Top Zombie Killer.' (Duh.)

Excellent game. I look forward to any SC2 stuff that you pump out!

It's tinymap! Tinymap killed infantry armor. Fixing it right now!

Quote from Gigins

It's tinymap! Tinymap killed infantry armor. Fixing it right now!

I didn't think you could have been talking about upgrading vehicle armor, though that did help a tad... getting the SCV at the crossroads mission is nice - if you keep it alive, you gain a significant advantage.

Quote

Apparently UMS replays don't work. See below.

UMS replays work, so long as there are no waits in the triggers. Other then that it works fine

So only maps without hypers work?

Updated to )) Mercury v0.95. Now with infantry armor.

1. Respawn Rate

I suggest a reduction in the spawn rate at the west side. There's this one spot where units spawn at an absurd rate, and it's right in the middle of the path between two major objective points. I suspect it has to do with how locations center on units.

I went all vehicles (2 hero Tanks, 3 normal Tanks, 3 Goliaths, SCV, and Kerrigan). Despite 1 shotting everything and taking 0.5 damage from enemy units, I was locked down in place, sloooowly inching forward with 2-3 units at a time. Infantry is so much easier, but I wanted to beat it with vehicles.

2. Zombie Wave Suggestions.

Maybe add a wave of Infested Terrans. It's small and sorta melee-ish, which fits the zombie theme. Drones could work as well.

If you don't mind giving players a Comstat to hotkey, you could also have DT spawns. The energy refill option in the Shuttle could work with it. It would force players to pay attention more.

3. Protoss

Are the Protoss units worth getting? They're the only ones who can't get extra units that share their upgrades.

Infantry users can recall the Fbat/Marine/Ghost/Medic troops. Ups are shared by Kerri. Medics auto heal. Ghosts are stupidly strong with crazy range.
Metal users can build 3 Tanks and 3 Goliaths with the free SCV (which makes starting with the SCV weaker). SCV repairs quickly and for free.
Protoss...gets nothing. Shield natural regen speed can't compare to Medic heal or SCV repair either.

Perhaps have Tesla troopers benefit a tiny bit from Protoss upgrades, like having 5 or so shield points and +1 per weapon upgrade. Or maybe allow for a shield battery to be built, like a Protoss equivalent of a Bunker.

I'd love to see a Dark Archon with maelstrom thrown in somehow.

4. Extra SCV

Since you get a free SCV, what's the real benefit of starting with the SCV squad? If you watch it religiously, I suppose you can repair the Bunker twice as fast for the later spawns since the Bunker goes down so quickly. It just doesn't feel like it's enough though.

I'd suggest giving a player special buildable unit if they command two SCVs. Since you didn't add in Vultures (why?), you could possibly use them here.

5. Mines

Mines aren't that useful. They're inexpensive, but they die long before you can use them against the units that matter (Hydralisk and Ultralisk). They also splash themselves, nullifying a lot of damage. For the same price, one cast of Battlecruiser deals more damage than 3 casts of Mines (Battlecruiser is normal attack, Mines are explosive). Even if every Mine goes off, the Battlecruiser does more damage.

Buff Mines somehow. Maybe in damage, definitely in defense (invincible, 255 armor with low HP, etc).

6. Ramps

Vehicles can't make it up the "/" stairs. Unless you intentionally want vehicles to be unable to walk up them, I'd recommend that you change the stairs into a "\" shape.

7. Limiting Reinforcements

By the time upgrades get expensive, you can easily fill the map (especially the high ground) with reinforcements. It becomes too easy (Ghosts are insane and counter everything, even Hydras if you place them in the center of high ground and block the ramp with the Medic). I'd recommend a cap on the maximum number of reinforcements to encourage special ability usage.