natesprad, I noticed that too, though I'm not sure why. You'd think they'd be doing Halloween-related badges. Maybe someone's going as sushi for Halloween?
But there's one last question I found to be very interesting. A lvl 2 Missile Launcher costs 900m, has 480 range, and fires 2 missiles at a time that do 500 damage each. A lvl 3 Missile Launcher costs 1,900, has 576 range, and fires 4 missiles at a time, each of which does 550 damage. I haven't tried it yet, but lately I've been thinking: what if I build 2 lvl 2 ML's, instead of 1 lvl 3? It should be almost the exact same fire power: the 2 lvl 2's should fire about the number of missiles as a single lvl 3. And lvl 1's cost 400m, have 400 range, and launch 1 400-damage missile at a time. And the nice thing about the lower lvl missiles is greater flexibility, in addition to reduced cost. So this is the strategy I'm contemplating: max lvl THELs for taking out motherships, with some missiles for swarmers. I might use a ratio of 4 lvl 3 ML's, 4 lvl 2 ML's, and 20 lvl 1 ML's, plus maybe 10 THEL's, to hit them at all ranges.
While pulsers vs. basic lasers seems pretty clear-cut to me, with basic lasers clearly much better, I think THELs and missiles are more complicated. Fully upgraded missiles cost 1,900m compared to a fully upgraded THEL for 2400m. The missiles have much longer range and do 550 damage each. And at those prices, you can launch 100 missiles from your launchers before the launcher is more expensive than a THEL. Most missions will end before then. And I've found missiles to be by far the best way to down swarmers. But THELs are quite good at taking out motherships, and excellent for taking out most other ships. Plus, missiles are useless against ring ships. So in the end, I think the best thing is to have some missiles and some THELs, but to keep the missiles off most of the time.
This is probably pretty obvious if you've been playing a while, but after experimenting for a while I've found Pulsers to be pretty much pointless to build. They do fire more rapidly than basic Lasers, but they do a lot less damage, and cost a whole lot more. basic Lasers cost 100m and do 30 damage; Pulsers cost 200, 350, or 650m, and do 12, 14, or 16 damage. Their superior range is nice, but even combined with the higher fire rate it doesn't come close to making up for the reduced firepower and additional cost. So I'd say just spend whatever minerals you were planning to spend on pulse lasers on basic lasers instead, or maybe missiles or THELs.
I had a bug like Thingfromthevoid. I was attacking some enemies when suddenly I gained a bunch of experience and a whole bunch of items spawned near me. At first it looked like the game had frozen up, but then I realized that there was a particular area of the room--the area around the fallen items--where if I went to the game would stop. Or at least so it appeared. After playing around with it more, I found that I could enter and exit that area of the screen, and thus was able to obtain all the items. They kind of low-level for me, but at least they made nice mana pearls, and I was able to reach the next floor without further issue.
This was already in my Favorites, but this update makes it even cooler. I felt the original version had a great early and mid-game, but the end game was over too fast. Now . . . I'm thinking it feels just right :-)
I liked the first several levels of the game. But I'm on level 20 right now, and for the last several levels it's just kind of become a slog, rather than merely difficult. The ever-increasing cost of towers slows it down and is just a real pain. I don't know why the designer felt it necessary to make each new tower more expensive than the last. But it's still an entertaining game for a while.
Now, the improvements I'd suggest. 1. Pastels are nice, but I think the grass and ocean tiles are too light, so it's difficult to tell them apart. I'd make them darker green and blue. 2. I don't think that structures should increase in cost. The first sawmill you build costs 2, the next 3, then 4, faster and faster. Each subsequent version or upgrade should cost the same as the last. Instead of automatically increasing the cost of everything, I think there are better ways to handle this. A simple solution might be to require three level 1 towns before you can build level 2 units, 3 level 2 towns before building level 3 units, etc. 3. I think victory comes too easily. Requiring only 100 stone and 100 magic means you can get victory pretty easily--you don't even need to start doing research. I'd make 100 stone/magic slow the darkness down a bunch more, and then have one more upgrade for the stone circle, requiring 300 stone, 100 magic, and 30 research to end the darkness.
I have to say that I like this game a lot, but it's unpolished. Let's start with the stuff I like. I like that you have an economy of scale feature--it reminds me much of an older game called Lunar Colony, which I think was based on MULE--tiles help increase the productivity of those next to them, plus you also included cities. Several resources available, and including the darkness means there's an actual challenge and objective other than just building stuff and figuring out how much it's all worth. And then having the sandbox option at the end is nice, to let you make any other modifications you want. I've now played the game for several hours, and I think I'll playing it for a few more yet.
Upgrading laser damage increases arrow damage, and upgrading arrow damage increases laser damage. Also, the game runs very slowly even with all settings at minimum.
The AI can't tell you how far Earth is, what went wrong with the navigational system or whether there's a way to fix it or whether the engines are still working. In the end it's just a question of whether you want to stay or go, no chance of even attempting to both survive. By that point the AI ought to be willing to answer such obvious questions.
Sluggish movement, even with 6/6 speed upgrades, and the jumping mechanics are exceedingly annoying. The character loves to stay up in the air at the moments I want him on the ground, or coming down on enemies. This game should a take a cue from other platformers (i.e. Mario Brothers), where you hold the jump button to jump higher, while a quick jump can be attained through a quick press of the jump button. So much air time makes it incredibly annoying and pointlessly difficult to kill enemies. But the art and character of the game and the rather extensive upgrades, powerups, and environments do redeem it. 3/5.
Sadly, it's just hour after hour of boring and repetitive hack and slash. Zelda at least had interesting stories, characters and settings to keep it fresh.
Any long-term progress in this game is merely an illusion. The experience you gain between runs does nothing that I see to improve your character or make your run easier. Enemies still level at the same rate, as do you. Only strategizing your purchases seems to make any real kind of difference. Very annoying, with the game just pretending that you're getting ahead. 2/5.
I had clipping issues, with some blocks being inside other blocks. Plus the interface is quite poor. While in the viewing mode, you shouldn't even need to click--just move the mouse around to view from different angles. In pulling mode, you should just click once on a block to have the cursor attack to the block, then move the mouse around to pull it different directions, so you don't have to worry about accidentally clicking other blocks.
I like it, but time compression buttons would be nice to speed up the slow balls at the end of the game. 2x speed, 3x speed, 5x speed, 10x speed would really cut down on the time you just sit waiting for a ball to finish bumping around. The magnet is a really cool feature though.
What is this game? I'm about halfway in and the difficulty is still low, yet it's somehow horribly addictive and the music slowly drills itself into your skull . . .
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