Ascend Observatory Pllleeeeasseee

[roncli]

Oh, Black Rose is good, too.

[The@$$Man!]

[roncli]

Oh, Take2 is good, too.

[Wats]

Take2 is great as long as it is uninhabited by Morfods.

[Sirius]

Yeah, I was talking about Black Rose. I haven't met many people who actually request it. I mean, maybe after eliminating the first five options, but other than that...

[Swarthy]

I made an attempt at an ascend observatory however, I was unaware of the fact that you had to use reactor cubes to prevent missiles from spawning and then when I used them I apparently used too many. I have reduced the number but I still haven't found a solution to the uncontrollable spinning when the map is loaded. If anyone knows the requirements to observatory map building I would gladly make more observatory maps.

[Drakona]

The reactor cube thing is tricky. The limit seems to be about 50 reactor cubes, if I recall correctly. However, there's a twist: missiles won't spawn in a reactor cube *or* in a cube adjacent to a reactor cube (connected via a face). So if you keep the cubes in the observatory area limited in number, you can usually cover them all with some sort of anti-spawning if you're careful about where you put the reactor cubes. However, you have to be careful not to place them so that they'll affect missile spawning in the level underneath. If you invalidate the missiles' usual spawn spots, you change the level. What I usually do is place them directly above columns or pillars in the lower level where I can. If that leaves me with enough reactor cubes, I put them directly above the observatory cubes so they don't touch the lower level. Sometimes I just have to put one adjacent to the lower level -- I try to do those in places missiles don't spawn much anyways.

A few missiles generally get through anyway. I like to put a missile return shaft somewhere. It should be far enough away from the action that the pilots below don't hear the missiles fired, and the wall they're supposed to hit should be isolated enough that the smart missiles won't lock on to anyone below. I like to make it a long tunnel marked by an exit.

I also like to make the observatory level tall enough that if you're up against the ceiling, you can see the whole level beneath you. Sometimes this requires me to stretch single cubes to the point where textures don't behave well, though. I try to make it dark enough in the observatory area that you can't really see that.

[Drakona]

Previous discussion: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=64

[roncli]

I'd be interested to know what triggers the spinning. Black Rose Obs has that, too.

[Swarthy]

Thanks Drakona for the info. I still can't resolve the spinning issue but I may start all over with this new information and see if perhaps what I have done so far has initiated the problem and where it may have started. (Hopefully to help Roncli as well). If I understand you correctly, are you saying there is a cube layer directly above the original map and then on top of that place the reactor cubes....or do I add the reactor cubes, spaced as you described, directly above the map (preferably over columns)? I don't mind the tediousness I just want to get it right and have a system and not fool with it. Thank you tons for sharing the info.