SirKnight, the running speed is adequate for the puzzles as given. The blank squares can go only next to something with a corresponding blank edge. Part of the puzzle is thinking what you can do with nothing but time to fall or a safe place to stall a jump.
I find those parts of the puzzle quite fun -- there is a level or two where you can shorten the solution quite a bit by falling laterally through a blank edge.
I have the map-scrolling problem, and still got all the badges.
In 1948, you have one craft with gas, one with boost. The one with poison simply keeps heading straight, gassing in alternate turns. The other craft boosts just enough to keep ahead of the gas, weaving back and forth to entice the chase planes to run through the gas.
When the boost craft gets near the scrolling wall, turn it. The last chase plane is just getting enough gas to go down. Now it's a simply matter to loop back and tail-kick the slow craft into the ground. 4 stars.
I'm not perfect; I finished with 53 stars on 15 missions.
I found some logic in the game. The IX:XV on the wall gave me the idea where to set the clock hands (I'd found them first thing). Then I just kept trying stuff that seemed to suggest themselves. I got lucky with the orange circle.
Yes, it's somewhat surreal. Maybe I just enjoyed it somewhat because I"m weird, and my wife is doing semi-abstract art.
Cute, but the movement is too clunky. I spend too much of my time zooming in and out, and then waiting for the screen to scroll from where I got the sprout to where I want her. I wouldn't spend too much time playing this for free, let alone paying for it.
I've been grinding through "Path to Hell" for 30 weeks now, and I"m not even halfway through. "Life Leach" doesn't work on these guys, and the treasure is worth anywhere near what I have to spend in potions. Booooooring. I quit.
I'm stumped. I've dodged the four fusillades that were aimed over the humans, and blocked everything aimed at them. When the last battle came (gunfire from each side plus a bomber), I didn't have the speed left to stop all three attacks. Two humans died and I went down immediately thereafter.
Does it help to rest in the middle somewhere?
Machinegamer, it takes people to close an airport. If they all fell ill while the airport was still open, and then died, there was nobody left to issue the closure proclamation.
Of course, you're coming in on pilot-to-pilot communication, and you have to pump your own JP-220, but the airport is *open*. I've flown into several that were open, but deserted, at the time.
Luck plays too large a part in the early game. The placement of underground riches keeps changing, so there's no advance planning. The mole doesn't work well.
I'd play the game more, but the lack of reset sticks me with the starting configuration until I finish the game. Reload doesn't start over. Grind, upgrade, grind, yawn.
Mattdragon:
First of all, "all" the levels may not exist. I just beat level 41, and I'm looking at 39 more on my menu. Perhaps the competition just keeps getting tougher.
As for tips, try reading what's already been posted here.
This game is just begging for someone such as TigerG to adapt it to another language. It shouldn't be too hard to switch the dictionary and character sets. Then you need to re-balance the damage value and translate the documentation. Tee-dah!
One of the things I *like* about this game is that it simply cries for someone (such as TigerG) to step up and adapt it for another language. Re-weight the letters, change dictionaries, alter the alphabet, re-write the documentation, and you're ready to go!
By the way, could we change "jade" to "ruby", so the specials are easier to recognize at speed?
By the way, one trick I used last night was to study my boiler ahead of time. Then I think of words that include several of the consonants. When I get into the action, I first focus on using all the given letters. Once I get to chamber 6, I just start typing words that come to mind with the letters I see in front of me.
Make sure you add suffixes. For instance, don't settle for "destiny" when you can fire off "predestination". Especially if you have jade to add to each letter, this really makes the damage add up. With both jade and brass in a long word, I've hit 200 damage several times.
In case you're wondering, I hit level 36 last night before the fatigue toxins (and tocsins) forced me to bed.
spicyninja, you transmute by following the directions: put two letters of the same level (number of dots) into the green area and click on the "transmute" label.
Click on "formulae" to see what the legal combinations are and what they do.
As best I can tell, the AIs change only when you pass 10,000. Also, their strategies are fairly good, but even "Realistic" isn't optimal.
Yes, I've had the problems of seeing a lead of 4,000 points wiped out on the final turn -- at least 5 times that I recall. I've also come from behind like that 3 times.
I have all three badges. The game is a nice diversion, and I recall playing a very similar game in a party setting about 25 years ago. This is a pretty good implementation. I gave it 4/5, and I'm *really* stingy with 5 ratings.
Those of you making claims of biased dice, please show your figures. Read the discussion boards. Half a dozen bad games doesn't make evidence for cheating. The 150 games I ran under controlled conditions, now *that* can serve as evidence for a bias.
According to that experiment, there is a *small* bias in favor of the computer getting a series of lucky rolls. However, your own strategy has a *lot* more to do with your success than that bias.
That basic questions are (1) How many points do you risk rolling each quantity of dice? (2) How do those point totals change depending on the stage of the game?
"Classic" snake? How many apples do you have to eat to get to the second level? Where are the penalty apples for taking too much time? Also, can I have my simple left-right controls, please, rather than the four-way arrows?
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