[SPARK ACADEMY] SPOTLIGHT MAPS

Traminator

I figured I should have my own thread (and also put in [SPARK ACADEMY] in all my titles of cool stuff to pass on to you guys ... if THEY don't like it, then this will magically disappear I suppose.

After THIS is finished, I'll start another discussion on AM 3 once I have updated the maps on those and include a crash course for those who have not yet tried it out

ANYWAY, here are the "last 3 maps" (4, 5 & 6) of the current spotlight mission "Optimus Primal: Well, That's Just Primal" ... ie. 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 ... Honestly I started with 2.2 because I knew it would be the prettiest of the maps... next best looking one would be 1.1 and I'll do the first 3 maps after the last 3... If George Lucas can get away with it, then why not?

ENJOY!

woo224

@Traminator
Great map! We could use someone like you on the Transformers: Forged to Fight Wikia. You could upload maps and other statistical data.

nomisu

this should be pinned imho. awesome stuff here

Traminator

I've decided to UPGRADE the Chapter 2 maps to make them a little more "helpful"

Traminator

OK, "FINALLY" (I KNOW)...

Here are the CHAPTER 1 maps. Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to hold off on posting them until they had the EXPERT PI#'s & MOD PATH INFO integrated in as well.

Booster_Blue

These are great! Keep it up!

larrious

Noob question...but what are those numbers right above the node? eg. the map directly above Waspinator 4564. I thought it was health, but doesn't seem correct on my map.

Darm0k

I’m guessing power level indicator?

KillMasterC

larrious wrote: »

Noob question...but what are those numbers right above the node? eg. the map directly above Waspinator 4564. I thought it was health, but doesn't seem correct on my map.

Rating, or PI.
(I actually don't know what PI stands for, as I don't know what OG means as in OG Prime LOL. Performance Indicator and Original Generation?)

larrious

KillMasterC wrote: »

larrious wrote: »

Noob question...but what are those numbers right above the node? eg. the map directly above Waspinator 4564. I thought it was health, but doesn't seem correct on my map.

Rating, or PI.
(I actually don't know what PI stands for, as I don't know what OG means as in OG Prime LOL. Performance Indicator and Original Generation?)

Dam...that was the other question I had held it in for the past month...what does PI stand for? haha

So how do you calculate PI? @KillMasterC @Darm0k

Darm0k

Beats me. Heck, I’m not even 100% sure on what PI stands for. You need one of the veterans to school us on that....

Booster_Blue

Wooooo SPARK shoutout!

Faithz17

I’m not a veteran but I did hear that PI = power index.

iuJacob

3.14.

Traminator

"PI" stands for Power Index: a NUMBER that is calculated on the fly based on the specific bot along with Tier (3*, 4*, etc.), Rank, Level, ATK, HP, Masteries, Relics, etc. to give you a general idea of how powerful this bot is, particularly in a matchup against another bot. It's the big glaring BOLD WHITE NUMBER that's plastered on every bot everywhere (ie. a 3* 4/40 would be between roughly 1,000-1,700 depending on Forge level. It's more or less a fixed number, at most moments in time, until you change up your relics or masteries or actually choose your matchup and that's when class advantage/disadvantage is taken into account and that's going to be your most noticeable immediate change to the number.

Changing your relics or masteries will also affect all your bots' PI across the board (if you are viewing the bots from the right mode that matches your relics - ie. if you have arena relics on, you'll notice the higher PI only during arena matches). Generally speaking, players can often get confused after another Kabam fumble on an update and the PI displayed is way off (usually on the low side), but it actually should be the least of your problems, LOL, because ultimately your bot hasn't changed... rank and level are always intact but that little calculator they built in to decide what the PI should APPEAR to you as at any given moment is sometimes out of whack after an update (case in point, this last update in Act 3 Chapter 4 where the Bot PI's as viewed on the map is different than the more accurate number shown when you click (from a distance) the bot itself. Another oddity is why different players viewing the same map at the same time see different PI numbers - most of the time the difference in the numbers isn't too great and tend to stay consistent for each individual player, but I haven't gotten to the bottom of this question yet and I don't believe it is as simple as saying that the explanation why the players see different numbers is linked "solely" to masteries.

PRACTICALLY SPEAKING, just use the numbers on a relative basis and as a personal reference on (a) how manageable the map will be for you to handle, to help you identify the easiest path in order to at least "complete" but not necessarily 100% the map, but usually the lack of mods on a path or the number of "*" shown along the path is a fairly good indicator of difficulty (and if the path has no stars, then consider that "0" stars and it being the easiest path)... and lastly especially when it comes to the solo maps, use them as a guide on which paths to run while your best bots are stuck in an AM (ie. without your top bots available, it might be easier to run the easy path on Chapter 6 rather than the hardest path of chapter 1 which you can do after your best bots have exited AM)

The use of "PI" incidentally, is a holdover from the replicated aspects of the gaming platform and genre that Kabam built for TFTF's older brother of a game MCOC (Marvel's Contest of Champions). As a general statement, I'm sure that the things that were popular in MCOC will eventually be brought to TFTF but a couple years behind. In most aspects, TFTF will be following in MCOC's footsteps except for the one very significant upgrade to their 1-on-1 fighting system which went from 1 dimensional (backwards and forwards, jumping/leaping/flying as part of some form of attack doesn't count) to a 2 dimensional circular ring where Sidestepping is a very huge part of the fighting experience (and ironically becomes any veteran MCOC player's biggest hurdle to learn when playing TFTF for the first time)

Traminator

We are a couple days out from the current spotlight ending and the first time around on EXPERT I didn't bother noting the PI or mods so it was only after the fact to run it again to get all of the complete info for chapters 1 & 2... and had planned to do 3 but halfway through documenting the map, Act 3 Chapter 4 dropped and now I'm busy mapping that (the first 2 maps have been completely mapped out so far and will drop soon).

So here is what I DO HAVE so far... (I don't mind anyone contributing the missing info)... and I have already posted these "draft versions" on my website, but I'll put them up here as well so you have a complete set of the most recent and useful maps here in this thread.

Traminator

Oh and @larrious No one, as far as i know, has bother tracking how PI is calculated... and because it seems to change every update, I don't think it's really worth anyone's time... there is nothing to be gained from it really... it's just there to tell you at first glance if the fight is possibly winnable and roughly how hard it's gonna feel like, LOL ... As i said in the earlier post, after every update, nothing (unless posted in the forums) is usually changed about any of your current roster of bots (in terms of any of the raw stats... YET, often those numbers look different one day compared to the night before right after another update that you now have to be wary of

larrious

Thanks @Traminator ! You're the man. I love your maps btw, they're well-laid out with useful info.

Just realized I was confused with the PI because this is for Expert. I was wondering why the numbers differed so much for those from Hard mode. I therefore thought it was some hidden number rather than the big number that all bots (including mine) have lol.

Traminator

My best advice for any of you tackling EXPERT is to remember that you are "Fighting the MOD" and "NOT the BOT". This is in line with the philosophy behind Map 3. So if you can perform reasonably well in Spotlight EXPERT (at least 100% Chapter 1 and/or Chapter 2), then you know you are on the right track. With Map 2, you can use Class Advantage and a high forge level as a handicap along with path pre-planning and tag teams with your BG, but with Map 3 each player is forced to face 3 separate paths with 3 specific mods (8 bots in total) all completely on your own.

So using Map 3.2 as an example, if you're going to go down MD4 (Melee Damage 4) then one simple approach to counter that particular mod is to focus on using bots that excel at a ranged fight and then keep your distance the entire match rather than face off in Melee combat where you are at decided disadvantage (where opponent Melee ATK is 2.5x normal ATK. Even with class advantage on your side, it doesn't match up to the ATK gains your opponent will be using against you. I would go so far to say that the right choice of a BOT that specifically counters or reduces the effectiveness of that MOD, BUT happens to also put your Bot at a class DIS-advantage is still a better choice for that fight on that path.

Traminator

Okay... SOOOOO....

Since I have been so unexpectedly and extraordinarily busy (but might still get one HOUND SPOTLIGHT map out tonight) that I'm just going to open up the vault and make available to you my MAP DRAFTS (using Google Sheets) from this last round of SPOTLIGHT which will contain all the data and info you would want to know from the maps. Unfortunately for you, there are no arrows to show you the flow of the paths, but I think you guys can figure it out.

SPOTLIGHT - HOUND - MAP DRAFTS [EXPERT]

SPOTLIGHT - HOUND - MAP DRAFTS [HARD]

Traminator

Anyway, here's the only map I got around to this month... Just wanted to show you because it will show you where I'm going with the next big update to my AM-3 Map and Guide

For the REST of the SPOTLIGHT MAPS (since technically there's still almost a day left), just follow the links in the post just above this one.

Traminator

Here's an early start for the KICKBACK SPOTLIGHT MAPS... To get them to you faster, I'm taking them straight out of my collection of MAP DRAFTS but they still have everything you would find helpful and this will give me some time to finish making the "pretty" maps

I'll start posting them below, but if you see some "empty looking posts" then that just means the pic has been removed to be replaced by a subsequent updated pic so just keep scrolling down until you find what you're looking for.

Traminator

Here are the first 2 Maps from Chapter 1:

Traminator

Oh yeah, I always forget to do a little shameless advertising for SPARK so if you're looking for a higher diff Map 3 (at virtually ANY level since Spark now has 11 alliances running Map 3) then contact:
Orion°Pax (in game) or
Orion_Pax_12 (on LINE APP)

Traminator

Now skipping to Chapter 3 next because that was a bit tougher for some of you guys.

Traminator

And ... Backwards to Part 1, LOL

Traminator

Sorry I haven't had the time to go back through that last map to get all the PI #'s from the Map View. The next maps may be missing some partial info as well. If any you want to volunteer the info, feel free to post it and I'll update the maps sooner than later (it takes a lot longer going through these maps since I'm documenting rather than just fighting my way through them).

Humpyhampster

Seems like a good amount of work, thanks for taking the time to make and post these.

Traminator

Sorry got busy, but here are the Chapter 2 maps. I'm going to finish revamping my AM-3 MAPs for Public release before coming back around to make these SPOTLIGHT MAPS "pretty"

woo224

@Traminator

How do you plan to improve your maps? I envisioned large maps with images of Bots, nodes, Utility Mods, chests, are Ore-13.
Have you considered making image maps? I've uploaded many images from the game to the Transformers: Forged to Fight Wiki.

I haven't added 1~4-Star frames and chests into any article yet, so here they are:
http://transformers-forged-to-fight.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=frame&fulltext=Search&ns6=1
http://transformers-forged-to-fight.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=chest&fulltext=Search&ns6=1&filters[]=no_filter&rank=default#

Traminator

Well, these ugly little Map DRAFTS are exactly what they are ... DRAFTS. It's how I first create the map grid (or sort the contents of the map in such a way that would fit in a grid format because if the maps were created to scale and actual positioning, they wouldn't actually be nearly as usable) and then LATER when I supposedly will find some TIME (which I never do), I make "pretty" maps... some of which you might find if you scour the forums long enough (with the pretty arrows and such). But since I just haven't been able to find ANY time to make the pretty maps in the last few MONTHS, I figured that at least giving you all the relevant information from the Map Drafts would be better than nothing at all.

That said, it's time to clean up the Kickback mess and clear the slate for Blaster (and yes, I know there's less that 12 hours left before we switch to the Blaster Spotlight, but for the sake of satisfying my OCD, I'm posting these up).

~~~~~

Since 2 of the EXPERT maps have now "disappeared" from above, I'll repost their final DRAFT form again.

KICKBACK (EXPERT) 2.2


KICKBACK (EXPERT) 3.1