In a planetary battle, the bigger fleet has a HUGE advantage, even if it's only a few units off. If they're attacking with more units than you can send for reinforcement, pull out and save as much as you can, then counterattack.
The AI is very good in general, but it occasionally makes newbie "mistakes" like throwing a small handful of units against a 60-unit fleet, leaving small groups to defend, etc.
Snowball. Attack the enemy with a slightly larger fleet ASAP. You'll keep winning battles, and eventually you can peel off a small group to split the enemy's attention, while still being able to handle a full-force assault using your main fleet.
Without a "nexus," the black AI can't create new units. Take advantage of lasers - abandon planets that you can't defend, and bait them into firing range.
See it as a donation with slight bonuses. Most people would prefer 2-3 dollars. Maybe 5 if you throw in unlimited items. But it's just the impression that flash games should be free. Mass advertising... I don't like it.
That said, I love the gameplay and the sarcastic commentary before the level starts.
This game is actually pretty accurate. Anyone ever hated waiting for elevators that are coming from the 70+ floor? Imagine three elevators coming from the 60-70th floors, while all you want to is get to the 10th floor.
In a real hotel, they would likely have elevators going to a RANGE of floors, not all the floors. In here that doesn't work. So you stick lots of short (~7 floor) elevators everywhere and they stop complaining. Staff elevators are longer.
Some minor glitches (screen lock glitch for one) and exploits (infinite special item on second-to-last-normal level, as well as the retry special epxloit) but it doesn't hamper how the game feels. The boss fight on Hard is one of the only battles on a Flash game that I've really enjoyed.
When using a shotgun, jump and shoot. You deal the same damage regardless of how many bullets hit the target, so hit as many targets as you can. Shotgun bullets also do not penetrate targets.
I went and watched the rest of the endings after finishing the game once.
I don't regret "cheating" to see what happens. The game itself is tedious, but the storyline is brilliant. Just... finish the game first.
Gameplay... 4/5. "Zone 2" is repetitive, the last zone brings new mazes.
But the story... was worth it. I wanted to play because I wanted to find out what happens next. Bosses have predictable attack patterns, which is the only way you can beat them in the last levels. ._.
Nedtth, make sure you're using EMERALDS, not EMERALD SHARDS. Shards are what you get by hitting those ores on the ground. You need six shards to make an Emerald.
I think the quest rewards get very pointless endgame. Oh. Emeralds. I can make an Emerald Globe and get the Dartanian. Oh. An Emerald Globe. What do I do with this? And then there's ANOTHER Emerald Globe. =.= Keep most of your shards for darts, you'll have enough of most stuff from quests eventually.
Another glitch: Monster Eggs all count as the same "item." So when you discard one, it discards the FIRST ONE IN YOUR INVENTORY. Lost a Lava Scarab Egg trying to get rid of a Revenant Egg.
I think the bubble cost when rebuilding makes you actually think about your tank - you can't just switch loadouts when you're running against a destroyer and then switch weapons when you run into a swarm of fighters, you have to make some decisions. And you can test as many times as you want right after leveling up.
They've already said how the laser lags. It's a pretty overpowered weapon, last time I checked. It really doesn't matter. I think it's all right, given that you can dodge shots more easily while lagging.
What I'd really like is a true sandbox that lets you create and test everything before sending it off, almost like the system from Arenas.