Within Colonial Space, users have created a wide variety of maps. There is a style of map called "Play as Creeper" (PAC) in which the player gets to control the Creeper side of the map and try to eliminate the pesky humans. SInce this style of map is completely opposite of playing CW3 the normal way, I wrote this basic guide to help players figure out the concepts of PAC maps.

This guide includes information from the early PAC maps. The key bindings have changed in newer maps, but if you play the early ones first you'll understand how to play the later ones and will just have to figure out some of the key changes.

I do want to make note that I had nothing to do with making PAC maps. I just enjoy playing them and the more people who play them the more map makers make them. Thus I wrote the guide to help with that. There are two map makers that deserve all the credit for PAC maps. The first is Stewbasic. He created the concept and all of the scripts that made PAC possible. The second is Hubs. Hubs created a fantastic template (it can be found at http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=17638.0) which makes it very easy for map makers to create new PAC maps.

For this guide I'm simply taking information I posted on the CW3 forums about this topic. At some point I'll go back in and add information about new key bindings in later maps.

When playing a PAC map you'll notice that UI at the bottom of the screen is different. Instead of the normal buttons you have the following:


As I write this guide I will be referring to the above buttons.

The first button (mapped to "1") is a digitalis button. When you select that you have the ability to lay down digitalis wherever you click. Anywhere you have creeper that is more than a depth of 1 will turn into a digitalis path. This is crucial to do because you MUST have digitalis under any PowerZone (PZ) that you want to build units in.

When you have digitalis selected you can hit "r" to make the selector bigger or "e" to make it smaller. I almost always leave it at maximum size although there are times you want more fine control. You can also hit "t" to turn the selector red which deletes the digitalis and releases any creeper into the space. I almost never do that although it can help with invading through the void. I'd argue that digitalis is the MOST important thing to defeating a PAC map since it is required to activate new PZs. It is a good idea to have a LOT of digitalis so a single strike of a Bertha won't take out everything.

An important thing to know about digitalis is that it can be placed in the void. This is important since you sometimes have to bridge gaps between islands. Simply send a spore (more on them in a later section) to the void and use the digitalis tool to create digitalis where it lands.

The second button is an emitter. Whenever you take out an enemy unit that is sitting on a PZ you have the possibility to make a new emitter. The only rule for putting a new unit is that there must be digitalis under the PZ and it must be dark blue. Whenever you select one of your emitters you can cycle through various settings using the same three keys (e, r, and t). Both "e" and "r" make the emitter flip between constant and surge mode. Constant mode releases a steady amount of creeper whereas surge mode stores up and releases a large amount of creeper at one time. Both modes are helpful at different times based on what you are trying to accomplish. If you select an emitter and click "t" then all other emitters on the map will "support" that emitter, making it significantly more stronger. If you want multiple emitters to be supported then simply click on one emitter and then on another. The second emitter selected is supported by the first. You can do this with as many emitters as you want.

The third button is a spore tower. Placing it works just like placing an emitter. Get a PZ with blue digitalis under it and you can place a new spore. Then you can select the spore and select a spot on the map for the spore to go to. If you have a tower aim at a spot and click "t" then every spore tower on the map will automatically target the spot you just selected. Sometimes you'll want to coordinate multiple towers to hit the same spot at the same time. To do this you'll need to use "e" and "r" for spore towers. That cycles a tower through pause and unpause. The timer still goes down to zero, but you can keep the tower paused until you are ready to fire off the spore. One incredibly important thing to remember about spores is that they can land in the void. This allows you to create digitalis to span islands.

The fourth button is the field generator. A field can be placed anywhere on a map (even outside of it if you want) and works kind of like a shield. It pushes creeper in the direction it is aimed. That can be helpful for overrunning an enemy position or for spreading your digitalis in a particular direction. The field gains power based on how many totems you have under control (blue digitalis under them - blue ring around the totem) but you can only have one on the map at a time. The field does not work unless you have at least one totem under control.

One final thing that is critical to playing PAC maps - the cancel button. Any time you have something selected and select something else you can run into an issue. For example, say you select a spore tower, pick where it should shoot, and then select an emitter. Now the spore is shooting at the emitter. As a general rule, anytime you are finished with setting something either hit the cancel button or the space bar (I believe that's the standard mapping for cancel on PAC maps).

Additionally, you can remove emitters and spores you have already placed if you want to put something else in its place. Simply select the unit to remove and hit "shift-x". A couple of important things about that though. First, when you delete one of them the underlying digitalis goes "white." You just have to wait until it goes dark blue again before you can place something there. Second, and even more importantly: do not EVER delete all of your emitters. If you have no emitter attached to your digitalis then it will not go dark blue, meaning you are in a lot of trouble!

I think that's the primary thing to know about PAC maps. Here's a list of all the PAC maps at the time I originally wrote this and what level of difficulty I personally found them to be (keep in mind that I'm definitely not the best player so YMMV):
838 - fairly tough at first since it was the first one I played but once I got the hang of it I'd call it medium
1099 - moderate
1106 - moderate/easy
1144 - moderate/easy
1211 - moderate
1233 - moderate
1261 - easy
1304 - moderate/easy
1349 - tough to start, moderate once you get the center taken
1397 - moderate
1430 - moderate
1433 - moderate/easy
1437 - moderate/tough


I hope you try out PAC maps and enjoy them. They are a fantastic addition to an already fantastic game.

The following are links to the CW3 forum on various PAC topics that you might find helpful.

http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=17572.msg124817#msg124817 - this guide in original format along with comments from players about changes.

http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=17638.0 - The template made by Hubs. You really need to go to this page if you have any interest in making PAC maps.

http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=17788.0 - A list of PAC maps put together by Hubs along with a "difficulty" guide for them.