This got a 5/5 out of the gate. If I were going to tweak anything, it would be to allow levels to continue advancing, with additional skill points being allotted to the categories (range, damage and fire rate) without further special effects. This would allow a slow but steady motivation to 'keep working' when having difficulty towards game end (it also would mean that those "free points" acquired by liking/following wouldn't be left over as spare change at the end.)
Excellent game! 5/5. Thoughts on a sequel: Different baseline plants--perhaps a snapdragon that has extra damage, or a thorny briar that has increased defense, or even a fruit-bearing tree that has no attack, but increases gold/mana production, with the increase going up as the plant gets larger. Symbiosis would work strongest between plants of the same type, but at a reduced rate with other plants (or maybe vice-versa; you get rewarded for using a variety of plants that way). The Symbiosis feature is quite unique in this game, and building to it would be good. (Another skill-tree might allow for improved/multiple symbiosis lines.)
Good, solid game, but the hyperbolic statements in the Instructions worked against you--you're setting up some major expectations there, that probably couldn't have been lived up to without Angelina Jolie doing Tetris cosplay.
Would've been 5/5 but the thrice-blasted "must be connected to access your progress" lost you a point. The "Connect" button doesn't do jack, and the Ninjakiwi site itself is so horrible it invariably locks my browser. Great game, but not worth the frustration it causes to replay.
Things I'd like to be able to purchase:
1: A spotter, who would ride on top of the truck and point out the nearest ore. Could just be a little red or green arrow that swings around the actual truck, or could be a pointer in the corner of the screen, I don't care. Can't count how many days I ended up running out of gas because I kept driving through town trying to find the last bit of uncollected ore.
2: Wheelbarrow men. This could be a scaled purchase, say from 1-5, or even 1-10, each of which would increase the "magnet range" of the truck (say, by 10% each guy). The only thing more frustrating that a bit of ore hidden behind a house is one stuck in the middle of a copse of trees.
3: I haven't gotten all of the buildings yet, but if there's not a 'clear-cut zone' purchase available, there SHOULD be. Would happily pay a reasonable fee to clear a 3x3 square of all trees.
The game would go a LOT faster if you could establish an auto-win condition. Say you defeat a particular monster-type 3 times in a row, with max health at the end of the fight. Any encounter after that with the same critter-type is nothing but a grind for XP, cash and souls. So add a button that comes up when the fight first starts that says, "Auto-Win". Hell, you could even set it so that if you take the option, you get an extra guy for your army, instead of another soul--the player could choose which he valued more.
As others noted, it's a decent 'idle' game. However, if you want to make it more challenging, another option would be to set targets for specific dates, or even ongoing costs (say, for new parts) that have to be weighed against the income.
Awesome game, but the "Play this on Kongregate" ad popping up at the end of each level is a tad annoying when I'm already, y'know, on Kongregate. And seriously, that's the only flaw.
Being able to cast Heal only in battle makes no sense, and is annoying. And it would be nice if, somewhere, it spelled out the exact differences between the three grades of attack--while there's definite increase in damage, it can be frustrating to get 2 damage on a supposedly "Heavy Attack". That said, I'm enjoying the game overall.
Solid point-and-clicker, if not particularly innovative also not bad. I had no lag issues. One suggestion--allow for switching light-sources in game-play (as opposed to having to go to the Options menu). After killing the zombies in an area using the lantern (to keep the bastiches from sneaking up on me), it was occasionally fun to switch over to the flashlight (which gave a better view of the background graphics--sometimes, with the lantern, it's pretty tough to see what it is that's keeping you from moving forward. Given the nice detailing on the background (blood-filled fountains, stained bedsheets, even a toilet!), it's a shame not make them easier to appreciate.
Very fun, and the "one mobile defender" concept works very well, here. I appreciate not having to aim during combat, while still having the ability to influence the action in the game. You may need to tweak the power levels on some of the guns (once you get lasers, it's difficult to actually threaten any of the floors). My own fix would probably be to only allow one elevator LESS than the number of floors--that way, at the very least, the player has to constantly shift his defensive line.
I think one of the biggest weaknesses of this very well-designed game is the machine-gunners; they're just so strong, there's almost no need for anything else after you start getting enough cash to buy one right at the start. At most, you throw down a shock-tower and a couple snipers behind them, and let the gunner-nests destroy anything that comes through. Once the balance issues are adjusted, though, this looks to be an awesome game.
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Same thing as CrimxoN--was having a blast up until I got to those last three missions, then it went from a game with a novel structure to a grinder--I figured out that at the point where I hit the wall, I would need to kill a total of about 750 of the biggest Reputation-shifting enemies (avg. about 250 from each of the three factions opposed to the ones I've been working for). Just getting ONE of those completed brought me up to level 29; I'm level 30, now (which seems to be the highest as far as abilities and equipment goes) and I'm still looking at needing another 500 kills. So... 4/5, would've been 5/5 without the grinding portion.
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Thank you for useful suggestions. The idea of different power of symbiosis while using on different types of plants is just awesome!