Arc (Multiplayer Strategy)

[Simon]

Hi,

Consider the following two-player map.

This isn't an exact map from Lix, but the rough shape is common enough in two-player Lix: Player A goes from top-left to bottom-right, and player B goes from top-right to bottom-left.



Let's assume:

• You start at the red hatch, and you're planning a route to the red exit.
  
• You have reasonably many builders, platformers, bashers, miners, and diggers.
  
• Both hatches have steel. You can still attack the opponent's hatch, but that won't decide the match at once.
  
• Your route will cross the opponent's route somewhere.
  

What will be the shape of your route?

Straight Line

You can mine straight from the hatch to the exit. This produces a linear path.

The problem is that your opponent can sabotage this path: He can send lone saboteurs to the !-marked area, destroy the terrain, and drown your lix. It's always easier to destroy terrain than to rebuild it, and you'll lose several lix here. You'll have to invest a lot of attention to the defense of this single area.

It would be even worse to dig near your hatch, then bash across near the water. Your crowd would have to pass close by the opponent's exit, that's a risk in itself, and the sabotagable area over the water will be even wider than in the direct straight line.

Arc

A better approach is this arc-shaped route. You start to go across horizontally. For even more resilience, you can try to get your crowd on top of the trees.

High routes are strong routes: Your opponent has a harder time getting to you. But you yourself can still get down easily enough. If your opponent bashes through your stairs, you fall back to the grassy surface. Even the grassy surface is still higher and safer than the linear diagonal route from the previous example.

Near the exit, the arc bends downward. You approach the exit in a steep slope -- considerably steeper than a miner's slope. This steep slope is resilient:

• You won't splat anywhere.
  
• When your opponent removes some terrain around you, it's okay.
  
• He can't bat you into oblivion, you're well away from the edge of the map.
  

Don't approach your exit perfectly vertically, that will risk splatting. High arcs are good, but if your arc is too high and stretches too far rightward, you'll risk overshooting the exit, and must turn your lix. Whenever your crowd must turn -- be it at a blocker, at a cuber's cube, or at other diggable terrain -- you're vulnerable to sabotage.

As a bonus, the arc allows good access to the opponent's hatch for your saboteurs, but you don't have to send your entire crowd to his hatch.

Most of our custom maps are more complicated than this example. You'll find steel or hazards in the way of your ideal arc, or the level offers only a reduced skillset. You'll have to be flexible, accept some risks, choose tradeoffs -- and that's what multiplayer Lix is all about.

-- Simon